County News
Process undone
The County’s staff recommended approval of Talbot on the Trail
The County’s Planning Department recommended approval of the Talbot on the Trail project of 290 homes. Its recommendation was based on months of consultation, study and revisions. The department consulted with two school boards, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing, the Ministry of Transport, three gas and electricity utilities, the Public Health Unit and Quinte Conservation.
Six other County officials reviewed the project, representing the County fire department, the building department, waterworks, roads and community services. Any objections they might have had were resolved by the final draft presented to Council.
The project was stewarded through the process by Planning staffer James Griffin. It was reviewed by Planning Department head Michael Michaud and Engineering head Peter Angelo.
Their work was reviewed by the Director of Development Services, Peter Moyer. Ultimately it was reviewed by the County’s CAO, Marcia Wallace. Here it must be noted that Wallace is uniquely qualified to consider and review planning proposals. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning from the University of Waterloo and is a Registered Professional Planner with the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. She worked for 20 years in the Ontario Public Service, serving since 2018 until coming to Prince Edward County as Assistant Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Together they concluded that this project, on balance, met the tests prescribed in the County’s planning rules and provincial requirements. Despite this planning and administrative acumen pointing in one direction, Council chose to go the opposite way.
Planning decisions are unlike other council matters. The municipality is required to establish the rules of the playing field (through its Official Plan, Secondary Plans, Zoning, Provincial Policy Statement, Environmental regs, etc.) so that everyone is operating by the same yard markers. It must have clear and transparent processes by which to navigate these processes.
It can’t be any other way. You need to know, or have access, to the rules and policies that govern your property. What you can build, where, how. It cannot be that you follow the rules, adhere to processes and your plan is then arbitrarily rejected on a whim of Council.
That is why planning appeal tribunals are available for redress.
“It cannot be that you follow the rules, adhere to processes and your plan is then arbitrarily rejected on a whim of Council.” It is the use of the word “whim” that undoes your argument. Your earlier story pointed to density issues and affordability issues. These are not addressed in this application. By one individual’s calculations, density may be 107% of the “targeted density” and 40% over the maximum density. The developer’s planner indicated that the increased density triggered ‘community benefits’ provisions, but went on to say that there is no plan in place to actually figure out what those benefits should be. Then that planner suggested that maybe the affordability factor could be satisfied by passing it off to another of the developer’s projects. This developer said the same thing about his “Port Picton” project. That doesn’t sound like all the elements were in place.
Finally, while it may be true that ‘staff’ indicated they were satisfied, it is not ‘staff’ that make the decisions. Council doesn’t exist to ‘rubber stamp’ proposals.
The developer has said that he expected there would be residences available in the $300,000.00 neighbourhood. This presumes that present calculations hold true when it comes time to build. The developer admitted that conditions could in fact change by the time shovels made it into the ground. In 2019, the planner for this developer indicated that some of the smaller units at “Port Picton” could start around $345,000.00. All indications at present show prices starting in the mid $700,000.00 range. I am not saying that he is attempting to mislead council but pointing out an example of changing conditions.