Don't hold your breath

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "About grants ,user fees, policies and waivers":

I like the " Forest " area being touted to purchasers without mentioning the wheeling & dealing going on to have the entire thing declared off-limits to those living there. 

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 18 August 2014 14:

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I have a story to tell  about the woodlot referred to above but first something else occurred to me about user fees.

They are set by bylaw. So...there can't be a waiver without. an  amendment to the
bylaw. We have  never ever processed an amendment to the use fee bylaw to provide a waiver to the fee.

Now....if  user  fees were adopted as a policy, that could  be ignored. In fact ,if  Councillors  are unaware of the policy, there is no requirement to inform them or follow the policy

In the last term, there was a policy prohibiting elected members from retaining  and instructing legal counsel  but it happened anyway.This Council adopted a new policy without mention of the fact the policy already existed.

A couple of months ago there was an e-mail to Councilors about cash being paid  in lieu of
vacation  not  taken. The vacation policy  allows vacation to be carried forward a year but not
payment of cash in lieu. It happened anyway.  The CAO  responded to Council that  he had approved it.

Now back to the woodlot.

There's the Oak Ridges  Moraine Act. It's provincial legislation. A  town planner received training about how to interpret the Act.


We have the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation and the  Oak  Ridges  Moraine Trust and I have never been sure why.  We no longer  have the specially trained planner . He has been re-assigned  as Special
Program Manager in the CAO's office.

The McLeod woodlot was legally transferred to the Oak  Ridges Moraine Trust. It's a process
whereby a land owner can obtain the value of a property from government in the form of tax relief.You have to be loaded to be in a tax bracket sufficient to be liable for that level of tax.

A  condition  of the transfer was no public access  allowed for  ten years. It's understood  all trees of value were sold and removed before the transfer.

As something or other in the Moraine Trust, Susan Walmer  became officially in charge of the property. Not sure of that's a paid position or volunteer.Ms Walmer was a  volunteer member of the Environmental Advisory Committee in the last term.

Also the former Mayor's campaign manager.

In the last term, at the request of the trust ,the  town signed a maintenance agreement for the property. We don't own it, have no access to it and no authority to use it. But somehow or others it was deemed appropriate that we should be  financial  responsibility for its maintenance.

In July, after a lengthy absence, Ms. Walmer delegated to Council to inform the town of a  problem. People are dumping litter in the area.

The property is fenced on three sides. Ms Walmer wants  the  fourth side fenced for complete security and  enclosure.

Oak Ridges Trust has not yet constructed access or paths in the forest that would encourage  public use when the ban expires.

The delegate gave no indication of when that might be.

The developer is not wrong about there being access to a forest. It just looks like Ms Walmer does not intend that to be any time soon.