Gramtrust Holdings got the city council approval it wanted for a 700-home subdivision along Limerick Road last week, but appealed the issue to the Ontario Municipal Board anyway.
While unusual to appeal a win, it’s necessary because of the cumbersome city-region approval system in place in Waterloo Region, said Paul Britton, Gramtrust’s planner.
“It’s to get to the end of the process as quickly as possible,” he said.
If Gramtrust waited for region approval, “we’d be playing out the same issues all over again for an extended period,” he said.
Area residents already promised to appeal the compact housing plan to the board. They could have done that at the end of the region process, potentially stalling construction until well into 2013.
The appeal hands total control of the situation to the municipal board, eliminating any regional process.
Cambridge is running out of single-family, semi-detached and row housing, which is exactly the style of units in the Limerick plan, Britton said. Appealing to the board now should still give time for approval and construction start in 2012, he said.
“I think it was headed there anyway . . . I just don’t see where the people have any choice,” said Dale Lonsbury, one of the Limerick residents opposed to an urban subdivision surrounding their country homes.
“The developer and city are working together and are going to get what they want. . . . We have no choice but to fight for our lives.”
Residents did win a concession from city council: dead-ending of the existing Limerick, to prevent traffic from the new homes shortcutting down their narrow country road near the Grand River. That’s what Lonsbury thought Gramtrust was objecting to, but Britton took no issue with that.
Gramtrust appealed to the board on a procedural issue: the subdivision wasn’t decided on within 180 days of filing of the development application. The subdivision plan was filed with city hall four years ago.
The board has total control to decide what to do with the subdivision plan.
It’s time to remove the double-approval of subdivision plans in the region, Britton said. The process needs simplification to reduce citizen confusion and reduce costs for developers — who pass the expense along to home buyers.
Subdivisions in Kitchener are not subject to a second review by regional council. That’s the way it should be for all cities and some of the townships in the region, Britton said. Kitchener won those approval powers because it pressed for them, he said.
There’s an “administrative review” of the local planning process underway, said Rob Horne, the region’s planning commissioner.
Included in that process is talking about how subdivisions are approved, he said. Recommendations are expected by year’s end.
by Kevin Swayze, The Record