"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 20 March 2015

CORRECTION. !

I just thought of a correction to the previous post.

I said new home buyers pay for parks and playgrounds in their own neighbourhood  through development charges. 

But the last Council added a twist to that. 

A six acre site for a Separate School was determined not to be necessary. 

Despite the Neighbourhood already having and paid for adequate park facilities, the town decided to litigate to compel the developer to sell the  site to the town for a fraction of developable value. 

The process has been ongoing for a couple of years now. Legal fees coming out of tax revenues. 

If successful in litigation  the price for the land  will likely come out of the cash-in-lieu of parkland reserve, revenues collected from development that did not create a need for parks, like the last expansion of Canadian Tire. 

Funds  taken because no park was needed  would be used to buy land where no park is required. 

Of course the land could be used for other public purposes like multiple affordable housing. 

But that's not likely. 

The purpose of buying it is to satisfy neighbour demands 
to prevent development. 

The same idea  has been put forward for the Highlands Golf Club.

We may not have heard the last of that idea.The Neighbours there have retained legal counsel. 

The bottomless pockets of taxpayers is better than having a mint to print money in the basement of the town hall basement. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It will have to go for development eventually and the town is paying to keep a share of any proceeds. I think that one might make sense. If it was an error on the part of the developer, Aurora might as well take advantage.
The two other property development projects are going to be fascinating to watch. One group is doing everything possible to mitigate a huge change, the other is just making everyone angry by making crazy demands.

Anonymous said...

11:28
You are right. The Highland neighbours are working with the developer. Those around Timberlane picked an early fight demanding to know what materials would be used and what sort of fences they would get. Both will probably end up at the OMB though. It seems to be a right of passage.

Anonymous said...

18:54
Yup. OMB they will probably go, and both will lose. And what's even worse...the Town knows they will lose. Yet will fund anyway.