20% Logic ..80% Emotion

I  tell you because it's  true and it's relevant.

Time was a zoning application had to be made  for a "group home"to be located .

Every application resulted in  uproar in every neighborhood.

It didn't stop until Provincial regulations removed the need for re-zoning.

It was  finally understood, people with special needs  are people like everyone else  with the same right to live in a residential neighborhood .

They are not lesser beings.

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The tree bylaw was back on Tuesday with a  new barrel load of twaddle.

An hour of general committee ,an hour and a half of Council spent dipping into the stew cooked up by the Environmental Advisory Committee.

The pesky bylaw was sent back to the committee.

Serves them right.

Former  Councillor, many times failed candidate for Mayor, Nigel Keane was  the original author.

Clear-cutting had not been observed in town . It was election time.

Under the Bylaw, Property owners were  compelled to post a sign,notifying neighbors of intention to destroy or injure trees  and  provide opportunity to prevent the crime.

On receipt of application, staff  descend upon the property with arborist. calipers and gear for
documentation.

Trees  are identified  by type, examined for health, measured for size and pin-pointed for location.

Permit fees are  established  by numbers of trees . Thousands of dollars  are extracted in the process.

Recommendation  to grant is made by staff .

Decision to grant ..or not... is made by Council.

Fees are not refunded ,if permit not granted.

An application came from the owner of a tree covered lot. He wanted to build a house.

He notified  neighbors, hired experts, paid permit fees and waited.

Bylaw -author -Councillor  Kean moved  refusal.

The motion was defeated.

Everything  needing to be said about  lame-brained, idiotic, asinine. time-wasting  tree bylaw was said in Kean's motion.

Annual applications  to remove trees are in low single digits.

Mostly for heavily wooded building sites.

Such construction is mostly in estate lot subdivisions.

Mostly in the Oak RidgesMoraine and regulated by the  OakRidges Moraine Act .

Provincial legislation trumps local bylaws  every time

A house  built in the Oak Ridge Moraine is subject to site plan approval and simplified subdivision agreement.

Removal of trees is part of the planning process. Not the tree bylaw.

Thousands of trees are planted  annually in Aurora  Looking down Yonge Street from Newmarket
the town cannot be seen for the trees.

Destruction and injury of trees by a horde of black-hearted villains is not of note.

Never a hint , sign twitch or twinge  of wholesale slaughter  of verdant companions is seen.

Would we could ,pass a Bylaw outlawing  interminable debate on foolish, nonsensical rules and compulsion to punish will-o-the-wisp offenders.

The province has given the Region authority to control tree removal on golf courses.

Town movement into that domain will likely be speedily renounced.

We are a nation of laws.