A proposal to build an eight-storey building on the edge of the Sixteen Mile Creek, above the popular Lions Valley Park, is headed to a hearing before the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).
Delmanor West Oak wants to build a 315-unit rental highrise building for seniors on 4.6 hectares of land severed from St. Volodymyr Cultural Centre.
The company is also proposing 27 one-and-half-storey independent living units arranged in four blocks for the site. It made an application to the town in February 2021.
Under planning rules, the town had 90 days to rule on the application. More than 19 months later, it still hasn’t made a decision.
The developer has appealed the application to the OLT and the provincial appeal body will now rule on whether the building should be allowed.
The OLT's quasi-judicial process, which considers planning policies, legal arguments and testimony from experts, largely sidelines local residents.
An appeal may also often kick off negotiations between the town and developer, as both seek to avoid the cost and time involved in a full OLT hearing. That process also usually keeps the residents in the dark, although the town did recently go public with a negotiated settlement before approving it.
Read more by clicking the links below:
Residents furious over possible deal with townhouse developer
Bronte highrise settlement: town and developer go public
News of the appeal frustrates nearby resident Andrew Ion, who spoke out against the height of the building during a public hearing in 2021.
"I would imagine that very few residents have the time or money to participate in this process (I know I don't), making it more or less exclusive to corporate interests to lobby unelected and unaccountable provincial officials outside of the community to make a decision in their favour," he said in an email to Oakville News.
"I'm sure many have asked this question: what is the point of having a municipal government maintain zoning and growth plans if corporate interests can just appeal to an unelected authority that isn't accountable to the community?"
Beginning in January, new provincial rules will force the town to refund planning application fees for missed approval deadlines.
Those rules, part of the province's Bill 109, More Homes for Everyone Act, arose from complaints from the development about the slow pace of municipal development approvals.
But the change could put annual town revenues of about $2.9 million at risk, according to a staff estimate provided to town council on April 25.
On a zoning application, the rules will force the town to refund half of the fee if it fails to rule within 90 days and the full fee if it doesn't issue a decision within 180 days.
The town currently charges a base fee of $27,830 for a zoning application. Additional fees apply to multi-unit residential or commercial applications.
At their Sept. 6 planning and development meeting, town councillors received a confidential report on the Delmanor appeal, as well reports on several other recently filed OLT appeals.
Those include:
- 103 Ringwood Rd. (appealing committee of adjustment decision CAVA/111/2022)
- 550 Kerr St. (redevelopment of the Oakville Commons shopping mall to allow three 16-storey mixed use residential towers with commercial uses at street level)
- Two town official plan amendments (OPA 47 and OPA 328) approved in July which maintain Oakville’s site plan application processes despite recent provincial changes.