The Hocus Pocus Official Plan

My mind keeps turning over what I heard at Tuesday's meeting on the Official Plan. The Mayor  previously informed a resident that  this plan would dedicate  50% of the town to  green space

In the edited version of the Master Recreation Plan, Councillor MacEachern changed the consultant's recommendation  to meet the need for sports fields to "a land acquisition strategy"  The intention being we will not buy what we need.  We will take it.  

On Tuesday, CAO Neil  Garbe indicated there was still time to make changes to the plan because discussions on land dedication were still ongoing.  In other words, there is no agreement with landowners about  the area  shown in the plan as  green space.  The plan is fake.

Under the Planning  Act, the municipality is entitled to receive  dedication of  5% for parks. Landowners are not required to give more.Nor are they likely to do so without warranty of any kind.

The Mayor's  oft-repeated  sentiment:  "Everybody  can't get everything they want." is probably just as true for the  Mormac twins as for the phalanx of developers who own land in the 2C area in this far-from finished Official Plan  being handed over to the Ontario Municipal Board with authorisation to staff to retain external legal services to defend the indefensible.

After more than thirty meetings, stretching out five hours a piece, torrents of words, a document  costing  $700ks ,which  has little  validity in terms of agreement with the people who own the land, and will likely now cost an equal amount in legal fees, take  months of staff time , O.M.B. time and landowners time and resources, which at some point will be reflected in the cost of homes constructed.

Make no  mistake, the cost of the process must  be met.There is only one consumer.

Future homebuyers  are the ones being taken to the cleaners.

Future residents and taxpayers of Aurora.

To add insult to injury, with   development charges, land transfer taxes, harmonized sales taxes,
value of land not developed, cost of planners and lawyers to process, the final injustice is market value assessment attached to the property and municipal taxes paid on  taxes  for ever and a day as long as the house shall stand.

What we have here my friends is mind boggling ignorance,arrogance and stupidity.