Friday October 7: OMB hearing re Midhurst (when we find out what’s really going on we’ll let you know)

Second update: Oct. 7 date has been confirmed.

By Kate Harries AWARE News Network

Received through the Ontario Municipal Board process regarding PL111181, which is the number assigned to the Springwater Official Plan Amendment 38, a notice that Simcoe County lawyer Roger Beaman, with the concurrence of Springwater Township lawyer Barnet Kussner, “are jointly requesting that the Board not convene until Friday, October 7 at 10:30 am at the Township Offices.”

This OMB hearing into matters related to the Midhurst developers’ request for Chiarelli bonus population allocations was first scheduled for September 19. It turned out that date was an error, it should not have been in the September 16 decision released by panellist Chris Conti. In fact, the date Conti had set for a hearing was Wednesday October 5.

Now – in the wake of the County’s bombshell announcement Thursday that it had reached a deal with the Midhurst developers – October 7 is the date we’re going with.

Springwater Township Council has scheduled an in-camera meeting for the afternoon of Wednesday October 5. Its regular meeting starts at 6:30 pm.

There’s not a whole lot we can tell you about how we got from this point, at the OMB hearing in the week of July 18: The County, supported by the Province of Ontario, the Township of Springwater and the Midhurst Ratepayers’ Association, argues forcefully that the OMB has no jurisdiction to interfere in the county’s refusal to allow the Chiarelli bonus allocations.

To this point, on September 30: the County announces it is folding its winning hand, thereby abandoning its new best friends and treating the electors of Springwater with utter contempt.

But there are interesting signposts in getting here from there:

-Oops, sorry: Conti, in his September 16 decision, referred to the fact that “due to some misunderstanding and oversight counsel for all parties did not participate in the August 23 TCC (telephone conference call).” We can tell you that the parties who were not invited to the TCC by Conti and his staff were the Midhurst Ratepayers Association and the Province of Ontario (!). One of the topics of this TCC was a motion the developers had put forward in July asking the OMB to order that the Province’s appeal of OPA 38 be heard. The appeal was filed October 28 2011 111028-ont-county-msp and only partially withdrawn December 4 2012 121204-chiarelli-withdraw. The appeal had been adjourned indefinitely because Springwater lacked the population allocation to accommodate the Midhurst expansion. In his September 16 decision, Conti approved the developers’ motion by ordering that the Province’s appeal be heard.

-A vote to appeal: Simcoe County councillors went in-camera on Tuesday September 27 on the OMB population allocation issue and, apparently, decided they would seek to appeal Conti’s decision that he would hold a wide-ranging hearing before he had ruled whether or not he had jurisdiction on the Chiarelli allocations. This was a highly unusual ruling, and an appeal made sense.

Text of the motion as read out, after council came out of in-camera, by Warden Gerry Marshall: That we authorize (staff) to file a leave to appeal with respect to the decision of the OMB on the 20,000 allocation jurisdication rendered on September 16, 2016.” Passed, unanimously. Was this a sham?

-Closed doors behind closed doors: It appears that, unbeknownst to Springwater’s mayor and deputy mayor, even as that appeal motion was being discussed in-camera, a deal had already been reached with the Midhurst developers, to allow them a population allocation of 3,000, half of what they were seeking (always ask for twice what you want). No wonder Mayor Bill French talks about betrayal. Treachery also appears to have entered the picture. And spinelessness.

-Update – this just in: In a statement added to the county website at 8:15 am this morning, Marshall paints an intriguing picture. He says that “County Council, having weighed the update and legal opinions, proposed the settlement agreement that was subsequently finalized on September 28, 2016.”

-Confusing: Lest we forget, on Wednesday, the day before the county bombshell announcement, the OMB released another confusing Conti decision: pl111181-sep-28-2016.

-Subtext: In 2012, then infrastructure minister Bob Chiarelli imposed a sunset clause of January 19, 2017 on the population allocations. The developers need the OMB to come down with a favourable decision by that date.

The OMB hearing is open to the public.