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Posted Apr 10, 2013, 10:27 PM
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National Capital Region
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Eastern Ontario
Posts: 9,252
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Quote:
Chernushenko scolds planners for zoning discussions with developers
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Chernus...854/story.html
BY DAVID REEVELY, OTTAWA CITIZEN APRIL 10, 2013 5:19 PM
Renderings for a proposed tower at 265 Carling Avenue, taken from a rezoning amendment report presented to the City of Ottawa’s planning committee on March 26, 2013. View southeast on Cambridge Street South.
Photograph by: Rendering , City of Ottawa
OTTAWA — Ottawa’s planning department has to stop telling would-be property developers what kinds of buildings it would be willing to back, Coun. David Chernushenko said Wednesday.
The Capital ward councillor scolded the department’s general manager, John Moser, before city council voted to approve an 18-storey condominium building at 265 Carling Ave., just west of Bronson. The builder, Taggart, was told that the planners would support a building of about 20 storeys, Chernushenko said, even though the site was zoned for fewer than half that.
“To feel that 20 storeys was almost acknowledged as acceptable at the outset” simply ignored what the community thought was OK, Chernushenko said.
What the planning department says is extremely important when it comes to things like controversial condo projects. City council doesn’t get the final say on them — unlike many other decisions, council’s planning votes can be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, and it’s very hard to defend a council decision that’s at odds with what the city’s own staff planners have recommended.
The planning department has been caught giving these sorts of pre-approvals in the past: the Citizen reported last summer on a leaked letter from the city’s planners to consultants working for the Odawa Native Friendship Centre on Scott Street, saying plainly that the planning department would support a rezoning allowing a nine-storey building, subject to certain design conditions.
It’s the planners’ duty to tell would-be developers what sorts of rezonings the city’s policies might allow, Moser countered. “I would think that yes, we talk about range,” he told Chernushenko. “If somebody comes in with a project that doesn’t fit from a policy point of view, we want to be able to tell the proponent that.”
That happens all the time, Moser said, with ideas that the public never hears about because the planners reject them on sight.
Builders are legally entitled to “pre-consultations” where the city’s planners lay out the land-use policies that apply to particular properties, other concerns (such as traffic) that the builders will need to address, whom the builders will need to consult in the neighbourhood, and that the final say is up to city council. These sessions are considered a normal part of the planning process and don’t show up on the city’s lobbying registry.
If Taggart’s representatives went around saying the city’s planners would support a 20-storey building, they must have misunderstood. “If that impression was conveyed by staff, it was all based on what the policy context would allow,” Moser said.
The company’s director of development, Michelle Taggart, said in a separate interview that the city’s planners never made a very specific suggestion about how tall a building they thought would fit at 265 Carling.
“When we initially met with the city we came forward with a proposal for 24 storeys,” she said. The city asked for a study supporting that idea, which the company did. “And they told us that was too high. They never told us 18. And then we went to the community with 20.”
At one point, Taggart said, Moser’s department suggested a building of about 15 storeys. In the end, the proposal city council approved Wednesday is for 18 storeys.
All the discussions were in meetings and nothing was ever put on paper, Taggart said. That means there’s no proof of the discussions either way, but also nothing definitive Taggart could use against the city, unlike in the case of the Odawa centre.
Even if all the rules were followed, Chernushenko said after the meeting, there’s a problem with a process that lets developers offer ideas and get even a preliminary sense of what the planners think is OK before anybody else knows about them. Residents are reduced to filing objections in writing at the last minute, long after they make any difference.
“We talk about having skin in the game, that developers have skin in the game because their money is on the line. I think the people who have skin in the game are the people who moved in there before, who are there while the project is going on and who are going to be there after the developer has done the construction, made its money and moved on,” he said. “There has to be a way to get them more involved.”
With the rezoning approved on a vote of 22-1, Taggart will move on to finer design details, Michelle Taggart said. The company will wait to see what happens with another builder’s 12-storey project nearby on the south side of Carling (one Chernushenko said was a much better model of community consultation and compromise) because there’s no point flooding the market with condos in both buildings at the same time.
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ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
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The City's staff report when they implemented mandatory pre-consultation has a good explanation of the process
http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/cit...pplication.htm
Quote:
Early Consultation with Planning Staff
Section 22 of the Planning Act states, in part:
“Consultation
(3.1) The council,
(a) shall permit applicants to consult with the municipality before submitting plans and drawings for approval under subsection (4); and
(b) may, by by-law, require applicants to consult with the municipality as described in clause (a).”
This is a new provision that allows a municipality to require an applicant to pre-consult with the City for Official Plan amendments. Similar language is included in the Act with regard to Zoning By-law amendments (ss.34(10.0.1)), Plans of Subdivision (ss. 51(16.1)), and Site Plan applications (ss.41(3.1)). There is no similar mechanism to require an applicant to pre-consult with the community.
In Ottawa, approximately 85 per cent to 90 per cent of proponents voluntarily consult with the municipality before submitting an Official Plan amendment, a Plan of Subdivision, a Plan of Condominium or a Zoning By-law amendment. With respect to Site Plan approval, approximately 60 per cent consult with staff.
The goal of pre-consultation is to provide applicants with a clear understanding of their obligations to the City, while also providing applicants with an opportunity to discuss a proposal and obtain initial feedback from staff, before investing time and money on a planning application. As a result of mandatory pre-consultation, the City will receive fewer incomplete application packages, helping to reduce processing delays.
While the legislation does not address pre-consultation with individuals outside of the City, staff will use pre-consultation to recommend that applicants consult with the Ward Councillor, community groups, and key external stakeholders. Applicants will be provided with a copy of the Branch’s Public Notification List that includes all registered community associations, condominium corporations, and churches in the immediate area. The application forms will be amended to request more detailed information regarding the community consultation that has taken place.
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