City given the finger
The effort to save the Garner Road marsh shifted to city council this week with over 70 letters to the May 3 planning committee meeting. The authors pushed back against developer moves to take approval of their five warehouse plan entirely out of the hands of council and concerned residents.
Alberta government corporation AIMCo wants to destroy the marsh in the headwaters of Ancaster Creek and compensate for it with a pond on the edge of Highway 6. The Hamilton Conservation Authority turned down the scheme last June but AIMCo appealed their permit denial to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).
Now the company is using an abandoned earlier proposal, submitted to the city in 2018 by a previous owner, to fast track plans that include over 200 transport truck bays and more than 1000 parking spaces. If successful in combining the two appeals, AIMCo can avoid a city approval process including normal public input.
Ancaster councillor Lloyd Ferguson called the second appeal unnecessary because the city has given an automatic green light to “employment” uses on the 89 acre Garner Road property. “It just seems the process today is for developers to just give the city the finger and move right on to the Ontario Land Tribunal,” he declared.
Chief planner Steve Robichaud confirmed this. “They could proceed straight to an approval of draft plan of subdivision, and provided it met all the city requirements as related to engineering, traffic, grading, stormwater as well as protection of any environmental features on the site, then staff would be in a position to bring a positive recommendation.”
Protection of environmental features is an obvious stumbling block for the developers marsh removal plans rejected by the HCA. The proposal by the earlier landowners left the marsh in place although it failed to provide the required 30 metre buffer – one of the concerns raised at the time by city planners.
The next move is May 9 at an OLT hearing where the developers hope to combine the two appeals. In planning committee, councillors gave directions to the city legal team, but did so secret session.
In an unusual motion moved by Maureen Wilson and seconded by John Paul Danko, the committee promised to reveal these directions after ratification by full council on May 11. However, these will probably become apparent two days earlier at the OLT hearing. The in camera instructions also likely included whether the city will support the HCA permit denial, something that Ferguson suggested is probable.
Intensive questioning by Wilson confirmed that AIMCo is behind the development although they officially are represented by Ontari Land Holdings and by One Properties Inc. She also extracted that Stephan Savelli signed the appeal notice. Along with Sergio Manchia of Urban Solutions he helped make presentations to the HCA Board last summer.
Her questions to city lawyer Patrick Macdonald confirmed that developers are not restricted by earlier or currently revealed plans. They can entirely change their plans at the OLT which treats appeals "de nova", ignoring earlier processes and commentaries and relying only on witnesses it deems to be experts brought forward by registered parties. Resident comments are limited to written "participant statements" that must be submitted in advance of the hearings.
“[It] is entirely within the applicant’s purview on what they will pursue and any impacts that arise should they decide to change the application before the appeal subdivision versus what was appealed in the 2018 submission,” said Macdonald.
