Council out

Waring’s Creek subdivision draft plan approved

The fate of Waring’s Creek is now in the hands of a pair of developers and municipal planning staff. Council’s role/duty to safeguard about 150 acres (61 hectares) of sensitive land from the development of 1,400 homes and the infrastructure— roads, sidewalks, utilities—has come to an end. Most elected council members concluded last week that they had shepherded the Cold Creek Subdivision file as far as they could. It was now up to unelected staff to take it from here.

Bloomfield Hallowell councillor Phil Prinzen wasn’t having any of it.

“This is our one chance,” insisted Prinzen. Then everything moves off our table. Not a lot of us like that. This is our chance to see all the studies come in and then to make our final decision.”

But Prinzen was in the minority—eight council members felt they had wrung as much out of the process as possible. They worried, too, that the risks of not pushing it forward might be worse.

PREVIOUSLY AT WARING’S CREEK
The proposed Loyalist Heights and Cold Creek subdivisions sit side by side on farmland situated on the east side of Sandy Hook Road. Loyalist Heights’ proposed neighbourhood will straddle the Millennium Trail, while Cold Creek extends to the back of the No Frills store. It is contemplated that George Wright Boulevard will be extended south past the No Frills store, through the Cold Creek subdivision to Sandy Hook Road.

In December, Council directed staff to do a couple of things before it would consider approving the Loyalist Heights draft plan.

It wanted a legal review of its responsibilities outlined in a 2008 settlement with the Waring’s Creek Improvement Association (WCIA). Council also wanted an independent review of the impact of the two large subdivisions on the sensitive Creek.

The results were presented last week. A lawyer with Loopstra Nixon concluded that the requirements outlined in the Minutes of Settlement related to a 2006 Environmental Assessment were no longer in effect. The lawyer found that the County had completed detailed studies and analyses of the natural heritage system sufficient to satisfy its Official Plan, Ministry of Natural Resources and Quinte Conservation. Nothing in the settlement indicated that the WCIA had approval authority, and, as such, the County was in the clear, according to Loopstra Nixon.

Regarding the second direction from December, municipal staff contracted a third party to “determine if sufficient assessment has been conducted to reasonably evaluate the potential impacts to Waring’s Creek.”

The reviewer found that while the developer had conducted a “reasonable scope” of investigation, they felt more work was needed to demonstrate the “magnitude of impacts remaining after the proposed mitigative measures were undertaken.”

Not quite as open and shut, but the County’s Manager of Planning, Michael Michaud, assured Council that he could take over from here.

LAST STAND
Some were uneasy about handing oversight of this sensitive file to staff—without recourse to reviewing it later. Under current planning rules, municipal councils get one shot. Their purview ends once a subdivision plan is approved as a draft. From that point forward, it is up to the planning staff to safeguard the interests of the community, the environment, and the economy. Everything. The elected folks are out.

Compounding the frustration seeping through the livestream feed on Tuesday was the sense that Council had already been left out of the loop. The legal review. The Peer Review. And a reworked plan from the Cold Creek developer. Fresh documents had landed in their inboxes just days earlier.

The developer pressed for approval. He said that the safeguards his consultants had devised were sufficient and that he would work with planning staff to change his plans if circumstances changed on the ground.

Cold Creek’s Dave Cleave said that jobs were on the line, affordable housing was on the line and that if Council delayed any longer, he would seek relief from an OLT (Ontario Land Tribunal) hearing.

On the other side of the debate, WCIA’s chair, Cliff Rice, said that until a cumulative impact study was done—that is, a review of both subdivisions and their impact on Waring’s Creek—the County was exposing itself to years of liability.

“No assessment of the downstream effects has been done, and we have been thwarted from getting this data,” said Rice. “Your liability will endure.”

WCIA’s Rice also shared Prinzen’s complaint about receiving both reviews (legal and peer) just days before the meeting.

Councillor Brad Nieman proposed a compromise. He outlined a list of conditions that Council could impose to address the loose threads dangling from this file. Crucially, however, his compromise meant giving up Council discretion about what happened and when. It would be up to the Director of Development Services and planning staff to determine if the conditions had been met. Once approved, it would disappear from Council purview. Nieman suggested his conditions were sufficient to fulfill Council’s oversight role and to give the developer the green light.

A list of conditions. This was the end of the line for Council oversight.

It was a big ask for some. There were still unanswered questions from December, yet staff were recommending Council approval.

“What’s the rush?” asked Ameliasburgh councillor Roy Pennell. But other members were feeling the heat.

“It sounds like we are under threat,” countered Picton councillor Kate MacNaughton.

MacNaughton liked many of the changes made to the plan in recent weeks, but worried that improvements would be lost if council didn’t approve it immediately. She noted that the developer had already launched an OLT appeal and that the hearing would be based on the developer’s original plan, which was deemed a lesser project by MacNaughton and several of her colleagues.

Others echoed this point, arguing that Council had to seize the sweeteners negotiated by Planning staff and added by the Cold Creek developer in recent weeks.

Put bluntly, if the OLT process is the only one available to this developer,” opined Sophiasburgh councillor Bill Roberts, “we will be dealing with the original [Cold Creek] application, which will be a clear lose-lose for everybody. So be careful what you wish for.”

Uncertain that he had landed his point with sufficient oomph, Roberts added that he was willing to wager “better than even money” that the developer would win the day at an OLT hearing.

When the vote was taken: Councillors Hirsch, Maynard, McNaughton, St-Jean, Roberts, Nieman, Grosso and Mayor Steve Ferguson were satisfied they had done all they could.

Councillors Prinzen, Branderhorst, Engelsdorfer, Harrison, Braney and Pennell weren’t yet ready to hand the reins over on this file.