9.          OMB DECISIONS – POLICY IMPLICATIONS

 

DÉCISIONS DE LA CAMO - RÉPERCUSSIONS SUR LES POLITIQUES

 

 

 

Committee recommendationS

 

That Council approve:

 

1.                  That City staff be directed to provide regular, post mortem debriefings on all future Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decisions to Planning and Environment Committee or Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, as appropriate, with an information report that identifies the rationale for such rulings within a month of the decision.

 

2.                  That, as part of this report and all future debriefings, staff outline any potential changes to City plans, policies and/or procedures to address issues arising from OMB decision in order to minimize the potential for future losses on appeal and to more accurately reflect Council’s direction.

 

 

RecommandationS DU Comité

 

Que le Conseil approuve :

 

1.         Donner instruction au personnel d’offrir des séances de débreffage au Comité de l’urbanisme et de l’environnement ou au Comité de l’agriculture et des questions rurales concernant les décisions futures de la Commission des affaires municipales de l’Ontario (CAMO) ainsi qu’un rapport, s’il y a lieu, indiquant la raison d’être de ces décisions, dans le mois suivant chacune des décisions.

 

2.         Donner instruction au personnel d’exposer dans les rapports et les séances de débreffage susmentionnés les modifications éventuelles à apporter aux plans, aux politiques ou aux procédures de la Ville pour résoudre les questions découlant des décisions de la CAMO afin de réduire les risques pour la Ville de subir un rejet en appel et de refléter plus fidèlement les orientations du Conseil.

 

Documentation

 

1.                  Councillor Shad Qadri’s report dated 3 May 2010 (ACS2010-CCS-PEC-0013).


Report to/Rapport au:

 

Planning and Environment Committee

Comité de l'urbanisme et de l'environnement

 

and Council / et au Conseil

 

3 May 2010 / le 3 mai 2010

 

Submitted by/Soumis par: Shad Qadri, Councillor/Conseiller

Stittsville (Ward/Quartier 6)  

 

Contact Person/Personne ressource: Councillor/Conseiller Shad Qadri

(613) 580-2476, Shad.Qadri@Ottawa.ca

 

City Wide/à l'échelle de la Ville

Ref N°: ACS2010-CCS-PEC-0013

 

 

SUBJECT:

OMB DECISIONS – POLICY IMPLICATIONS

 

 

OBJET :

DÉCISIONS DE LA CAMO - RÉPERCUSSIONS SUR LES POLITIQUES

 

 

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

 

That the Planning and Environment Committee recommend Council approve:

 

  1. That City staff be directed to provide regular, post mortem debriefings on all future Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decisions to Planning and Environment Committee or Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, as appropriate, with an information report that identifies the rationale for such rulings within a month of the decision.

 

  1. That, as part of this report and all future debriefings, staff outline any potential changes to City plans, policies and/or procedures to address issues arising from OMB decision in order to minimize the potential for future losses on appeal and to more accurately reflect Council’s direction.

 

RECOMMANDATIONS DU RAPPORT

 

Que le Comité de l’urbanisme et de l’environnement recommande au Conseil :

 

1.         De donner instruction au personnel d’offrir des séances de débreffage au Comité de l’urbanisme et de l’environnement ou au Comité de l’agriculture et des questions rurales concernant les décisions futures de la Commission des affaires municipales de l’Ontario (CAMO) ainsi qu’un rapport, s’il y a lieu, indiquant la raison d’être de ces décisions, dans le mois suivant chacune des décisions.

 

2.         De donner instruction au personnel d’exposer dans les rapports et les séances de débreffage susmentionnés les modifications éventuelles à apporter aux plans, aux politiques ou aux procédures de la Ville pour résoudre les questions découlant des décisions de la CAMO afin de réduire les risques pour la Ville de subir un rejet en appel et de refléter plus fidèlement les orientations du Conseil.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Pursuant to Section 77 (12) of the Procedure By-law, Councillor Qadri requested that the following motion be placed on the Planning and Environment Committee Agenda for the 11 May 2010 meeting:

 

WHEREAS at a recent hearing of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), Mattamy Homes (in opposition to the City) was successful in having a proposed district park moved largely off their property and onto land adjacent to a Hydro Corridor; and

 

WHEREAS this OMB decision appears to have been based upon the policies in the City’s Official Plan and Greenspace Master Plan as well as various Provincial policies; and

 

WHEREAS Council generally receives little analysis on the rationale behind OMB decisions; and

 

WHEREAS access to this information would assist Council in future deliberations regarding potential OMB appeals and whether or not to revisit or amend an existing policy;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT City staff be directed to provide regular, post mortem debriefings on all future OMB decisions to Planning and Environment Committee or Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, as appropriate, with an information report that identifies the rationale for such rulings within a month of the decision; and

 

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, as part of this report and all future debriefings, staff outline any potential changes to City plans, policies and/or procedures to address issues arising from OMB decision in order to minimize the potential for future losses on appeal and to more accurately reflect Council’s direction.

 

 

DISCUSSION

 

Should the recommendation be adopted, the City Clerk and Solicitor Department would work with Planning and Growth Management Department to prepare the information report.  Legal Services would prepare the summary of the decision and its understanding of the rationale as to why the Ontario Municipal Board Member arrived at his/her conclusions.  Planning and Growth Management Department would outline any policy changes that Committee may wish to provide direction on, including any process or public consultation considerations.

 

The City does not appear in most appeals from the Committee of Adjustment.  Thus, staff would interpret this motion to only prepare information reports on those matters where the City has formally taken a role as a Party at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing.

 

 

RURAL IMPLICATIONS

 

In the instances of OMB decisions on matters within the rural area, the information report would be submitted to Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

 

 

CONSULTATION

 

This item will be advertised in the local daily newspapers as part of the Public Meeting Advertisement on the Friday preceding the Planning and Environment Committee meeting.

 

 

LEGAL/RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

 

As requested by the motion, the information report will outline changes to policy that may lead to a different result in future OMB cases.  To the extent that Council chooses not to move forward with such policy changes, it can be anticipated that appellants in future cases will notice such determination to not change policy as an affirmation that the decision in question was appropriate.

 

 

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

It is expected that over the course of a year twenty to thirty decisions would be reported to Committee, each report requiring about two to three hours of staff time with each of the City Clerk and Solicitor Department and Planning and Growth Management Department, or two to three weeks per year from each Department. 

 

As the hearings would normally be spread out over a number of planners, the requirement for information reports could be handled within existing staff resources in Planning and Growth Management.  There are two in-house lawyers within the City Clerk and Solicitor Department who conduct hearings.  As a result, requirement for information reports may lead to an additional one or two hearings per year being outsourced.

 

 

DISPOSITION

 

Staff will implement the directions of Committee and Council.