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(Posted 8:30
a.m., Feb. 23)
Developer pledges to stick to original commitment if council reverses
decision
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
As
city council prepares to revisit their decision to limit the future expansion
of the urban boundary, the developer who was left out in the cold by the original
decision says they're prepared to honour their original commitment to the community. It's
been eight months since city council voted to limit a proposal to expand the urban
boundary to just 222 hectares rather than the 850 hectares which was recommended
by staff. In doing so they ignored the advice of their own legal council who warned
that they risked multiple appeals to the Ontario Municipal Board which may or
may not uphold their decision. Those
warnings were recently reinforced by outside counsel who have gone one step further
in warning that the city will likely lose the appeal process which will cost taxpayers
hundreds of thousands of dollars if the councillors decide to stick to their guns. The
prospect of spending all that money on a losing cause has a number of councillors
rethinking their original decision. Mayor Larry O'Brien, who didn't get to vote
on the first time around because he was embroiled in a court battle at the time,
says they made a mistake and is pushing for reconsideration. The
original motion to limit the urban boundary expansion to 222 hectares passed by
a margin of 12-11. If Mayor O'Brien had of voted it would have lost on a tie vote. The
prospect of city council overturning their decision has reignited the debate over
the possible impact of urban boundary expansion, especially in the far east end
where Tamarack Homes wants to build a new subdivision east of Cardinal Creek. The
developer's plans form part of the 850 hectare expansion that was recommended
by city staff. The subdivision is bitterly opposed by a group of Cumberland residents
based mainly in Cumberland Village. They argue the proposed subdivision would
further exacerbate the problems associated with urban sprawl and cost taxpayers
millions of dollars in additional infrastructure costs. But
Ted Phillips, the director of development for Tamarack Homes, says their are a
number of misconceptions being circulated about the proposed subdivision. The
most glaring of which is the claim that it will end up costing taxpayers millions
of dollars, when the opposite is true. According
to Phillips, the developer is already committed to incurring all the various infrastructure
costs associated with subdivision. The development will also generate more than
$90 million in development charges, half of which can be spent on local road improvements. One
of the biggest misconceptions, says Phillips, is that the 4,500 home subdivision
will be built in two or three years. The reality, he says, is that they will be
lucky to build 100 homes a year during the first five years. Even at full production,
the maximum number of homes they could build in a year is 250 to 300 homes. When
its built out in 15-20 years, the development will generate more then $27 million
in property taxes. Phillips
also says Tamarack Homes remains committed to planting twice as many trees as
is normally required in a subdivision plan, as well as setting aside twice as
much green space and building a recreation centre. If
council decides to stick to its guns in limiting the urban boundary expansion
to 222 hectares, Tamarack Homes and the Taggart Group of Companies is committed
to pursuing the issue all the way to the end. "Let's
put it this way, we would much rather invest all that money in the community,
but if the city decides to uphold their original decision we'll be left with no
choice but to fight it," says Phillips. (This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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