"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Friday 15 April 2011

Westhill Development Application

It has been approved. The Municipal Board decision was not favorable to the Municipality on any count.

 1.  Westhill has fulfilled the Class EA requirements
 2.   the Official Plan Amendment as modified was appropriate
 3.   the zoning bylaw amendment should be granted
 4.   the plans of subdivision and  condominium should beapproved subject to conditions; and
 5.   the Committee of Adjustment appeals on Bovair are allowed.

In July 1999, Westhill filed its revised application for development with the Town. Four years of negotiations ensued.

In October 2003 ,Westhill filed an appeal with the Ontario Municipal Board

A Hearing date was set for April  2008

In March 2008 the  previous council refused the application stating it was premature.Mine was the single dissenting vote. I believed the town could not win.

Money for legal fees has flushed out of the town treasury  into a sink hole ever since.

A full three years later, considering  five failed  procedures to gain a consolidated board hearing ,and six weeks of Ontario Municipal Board Hearings with all the  attendant expense of  time and finances, there is little satisfaction in saying:  See.... I was right again.

What price experience? What price judgment? What price commitment to the best interest of the taxpayer?

Was the town well served? Not a whit.

Did we  fight for a principle ? Are you kidding me.

Am I bitter?  No...because I  KEPT FAITH WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ELECTED ME.

When I find out,to the penny, how much it cost, I will let you  know that too..

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And Rod Northey lost another one...lol,lol.

Mad as Hell said...

Yet another example of why the lot of them were thrown from office, I agree you shouldn’t be bitter but you have every right to be angry as hell just like the rest of us who watched this whole charade play out. all in the name of misguided self righteousness ,what an absolute disgust.

Anonymous said...

If Morris or MacEachern had to reach into their own purses for as much as twenty bucks to fund the fight they would not pursued this issue. But then they never did have any regard for taxpayers in this town, just their diminishing circle of friends.

It was always a foregone conclusion what the result would be.

Now we await the foregone conclusion of the next OMB result.

Old Morris Bull****

Anonymous said...

It was all a huge waste , but Thank, you ,Thank you ,Thank, you Councilor Buck, If it weren’t for you and this blog continually driving home the horid facts we would have been saddled with another four years of their crap ,One can only imagine with horror the kind of financial ruin we all would have witness

Anonymous said...

What about all the wasted staff time with the last council? Maybe we don't need all the additional staff now, and therefore we don't need refurbishment of the town hall.