By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON March 26, 2012 The residents, in the still under construction Alton community, won a fight they shouldn’t have had to fight last night at city hall. Close to 40 residents filled much of the Council Chamber to support a bylaw change the city was making to basically give the residents of streets abutting the creeks the right to really use property they bought, and in some cases paid premiums of $10,000 to $40, 000 extra to have back yards that abutted into a creek.
There are a number of creeks running through the Alton community, shown in the squiggly red lines. Residents who bought property backing onto those creeks, often at a premium, found they were not allowed to use a large portion of their back yards.
While the technicalities of the issue would only interest a Planning Geek, and we have a few of them in this city, the issue for the property owners was – why can’t I put a deck right up to the fence in my back yard. The short answer was: Because the developer who sold the properties in the first instance did a bit of a number on the Planning Department – some might call it pulling a fast one, which allowed the developer to squeeze in more lots..
Due to Conservation Halton rules, which most people in the community didn’t even know existed, space at the edge of a creek is sometimes defined as “top of bank” or “flood plain” and if either of those existed, then some of the property could not be used. Complex stuff which, as Director of Planning Bruce Krushelnicki said in a voice that was more passionate than one normally hears from him: People buying homes, sometimes their first home, he said, should have to look for and read fine print on a sign.
The end result was a positive one for the community – it is something planners should have seen coming their way back when the sub-division was first planned and laid out. “Lessons learned” was the way the committee session put it.
Councillor Rick Craven , Ward 1, Aldershot, asked if these new interpretation of the rules would apply to the Eagle Heights development in his part of the city and he was assured by the planners that they would. Craven was sending a signal to the developer, in this case Paletta International, that conservation issues would be carefully watched as the Eagle Heights development went forward. While it is not up to planners to insist that developers be more forthcoming with information about the property they are selling – where were all the lawyers who processed these sales and, supposedly looked over the deeds and the documents. What were they paid to do for their clients?
While the debate took place at a Community Development Committee meeting, in Burlington what gets done at committee gets one of the fastest rubber stampings you will ever see, when the Ward Councillors meet as a city Council. See this as a done deal.
The construction of the combination community centre, high school and library is well underway. School has been named; will the library and community centre use the same names?
