It's an awful shame

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Guest Post And more":

Last night's meeting was a fiasco. Once again this Council opted to waste time & money are some half-baked Codes of Conduct for Our Homes & Businesses..
The owner of that proposed condo building has gone through all the hoops devised by staff - just like that resident with the 3 trees. He will be perfectly entitled to go to the OMB who will support him as he is infilling and meeting all requirements including the amount of parking spaces in our by-laws.

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 5 March 2014 10:03

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It was Monty Pythonesque.

Along  with the Strategic Plan the Town adopted a logo. 

"Aurora ,,where business thrives and neighbors care"

It's a cruel joke. 

There was no requirement for staff to bring the  permit application for the new building in the centre block  to Council. 

In the matter of a permit application. Council has no authority. 

The application conforms to the Official plan designation .

Parking requirements under the Promenade Plan, adopted by Council,  requires fourteen parking spaces.

IThe proposal has space  for twelve.

That's a minor variance.

It calls for an application to the Committee of Adjustment .

Which has  authority, independent of Council , to make the decision.

If its a  refusal,  it can be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board.

The memorandum was on the agenda to inform council of the application and need for a variance
and,if all went well, to authorize the Mayor and Clerk to sign the site plan agreement.

The  application process is purely administrative.

There it was ... as neat a building as one  would like to see, filling a vacant lot ,such as Councillor Ballard described as our decaying downtown as late as  last week.

Five floors, fifty feet high, the same height as the clock tower in the old post office ,and the same height as the  new apartments on the old Scanlon Bakery site . The building will accommodate
twelve  residential  units  ... exactly what  was known forty years ago would revitalise the town
centre.

The design such,  that when built it will look like it has always been there.  Precisely the objective of the Promenade Plan .

And how was it received by Council ? The comment above describes it perfectly.

I continue to be amazed by the endless groping ,hesitant, stumbling questions  and contradictory conclusions that reveal an appalling  lack of  rudimentary comprehension of  town business.

The same  questions and answers  repeated over and over and over again. To no avail.

Councillor Gallo has had five and a half years  of experience.

Councillor Ballard takes unto himself the role of champion of the Promenade Plan among other initiatives.

The rest  apparently have no idea the image  they project  to a community seeking assurance  and anticipating  competence in a Council  almost at the end of a four year term of office.

A Council that just approved , in a split decision, a project with a guesstimate cost of $26 million

Winston Churchill is  credited with an observation probably made  by many others  before him.

"Better to be thought stupid than to open one's mouth  and remove all doubt