The Ontario Municipal Board has rejected the request to review the decision approving a seventeen storey tower in Port Dalhousie. You can Download the decision here.
The St. Catherines Standard covered the story:
The Ontario Municipal Board is sticking by its decision to approve the Port tower.
In a six-page ruling e-mailed late Monday, OMB chair Marie Hubbard dismissed all three of the requests for review that were submitted by Jeff Loucks, John Bacher and citizens’ group PROUD (Port Realizing Our Unique Distinction).
But the tower’s opponent’s aren’t giving up yet, said Carlos Garcia, executive vice-president of PROUD.
“We would have preferred she had agreed to review the decision, but what we find quite interesting is that she did agree there were errors in law,” Garcia said in an interview Tuesday. “That does open other legal avenues.”
In March, PROUD said it was not launching a legal case against hearing officer Susan Campbell’s OMB decision to approve the tower, despite its belief it had good arguments.
The legal battle would be too expensive for both sides, Garcia told council in March, shortly after Campbell’s decision was released.
But now that Hubbard has rejected the request for review, PROUD says it’s waiting to hear from its lawyer, Jane Pepino.
“We have to keep all our options open until we hear from our lawyer’s reading of it, and see what she advises,” Garcia said. “We would proceed if there was obvious error.”
Jeff Loucks, who represented about 15 other appellants at the OMB hearing, said he is frustrated by Hubbard’s ruling but encouraged by the acknowledgement of Campbell’s errors.
“It leaves it open to the possibility of further appeal,” Loucks said. “We still need to think through how we are going to proceed. We have to continue the conversation and see who is interested in going forward.”
Mark Noskiewicz, lawyer for Port Dalhousie Vitalization Corp., which proposed the the 17-storey condo tower, theatre, hotel, shopping and parking complex, rejected the idea there might be legal avenues to pursue.
“From our perspective, there is no basis to challenge the decision any further,” said Noskiewicz.
He said he is pleased with Hubbard’s ruling, but not surprised.
“PDVC’s position from the outset was the proposal represents good planning and it is good for heritage,” Noskiewicz said. “That was the city planner’s position, that was the original council position and it was Campbell’s decision. Now the board chair, in dealing with the review request, has agreed with that.”
Noskiewicz said Hubbard supported Campbell’s finding “that this proposal is good for heritage.”
In her ruling, Hubbard said Campbell, who presided over 71 days of evidence and opinion, was correct when she determined that PDVC’s proposal complies with the Port Dalhousie Heritage Conservation District Plan and with Port’s heritage guidelines. She said she agreed with Campbell that the development will “provide an economic stimulus” that will protect Port Dalhousie’s heritage “in the long term.”
While Hubbard did point out two minor errors of interpretation made by Campbell, she said neither would have resulted in a different decision. She rejected the requests for review because all three “attempt to re-argue the issues that were raised over the course of the 71-day hearing.” Hubbard said all three requests “fail to make a convincing or compelling case that there was an error of law, of fact, or a failure of natural justice or procedural fairness.”
Hubbard also said the apparent contradiction between Campbell’s decision and another OMB decision delivered a few day’s earlier in Vaughan is not significant because OMB decisions aren’t precedent-setting.
“Each proposal made before the Board is to examined discretely and judged on its specific merits,” Hubbard wrote.
Garcia said his group still supports “appropriate” development in Port.
“We remain committed to protecting and enhancing the district’s heritage,” Garcia said. “Would the errors in law have led to a different decision? Those are the issues we need legal advice on.”
Meanwhile Hubbard wrote that she hopes this is the end of the fighting in Port — for the good of the community
“I recognize that this development proposal has been controversial ... (and) the Board was faced with a difficult choice,” she wrote in her concluding comments.
“It is my expectation that the parties will now work together to ensure that the economic stimulus promised by the PDVC proposal will come to fruition,” she wrote. “This approval will serve the long-term interests of heritage conservation in the community of Port Dalhousie.”
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Posted by: Robert Montgomery | 10/15/2009 at 04:03 AM
I can't believe they are tearing down history: ice cream, candy, clothing stores, bars, all that good stuff and for what...condos! Why not ust build it somewhere else where there is nothing built yet...instead of port. That's where I like to walk to on nice days with my friends, but I'm not going to walk to condos!
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