Official Plan: County Council Says NO to Public Meetings

By Sandy Agnew AWARE News Network September 27 2012 Updated with vote

Simcoe County Council voted 16 to 11 not to hold public information sessions to explain the new Amended Official Plan to the public. Penetanguishene Mayor Gerry Marshall moved an amendment (to the original motion to receive the report only) requesting staff to hold two public information sessions in October.

Marshall and several other councillors argued that the amended Official Plan is a complicated document and that the public has had little chance to ask questions or have an explanation of the many aspects of the document.

Other councillors felt that process to amend the original 2008 Official Plan has taken over three years and that the Planning Act requirements for public input was satisfied in 2008. They, and staff, were concerned that a further delay would result. It is set to go to the OMB in 2013 and could take another two years to get a decision.

The County had submitted the original Official Plan to the province in 2008. The province made no decision on it because it didn’t conform to provincial policies such as Places To Grow. So the County appealed the non-decision to the OMB. The Amended Simcoe County Official Plan is a result of several months of negotiations held behind closed doors with provincial officials in 2012.

Over 100 comments were received by the County by the August 22, 2012 deadline. AWARE Simcoe made a submission to Simcoe County in August which laid out numerous shortfalls in the document and requested public meetings so the public would have a forum to ask questions and inform themselves; 295 people signed a petition to that effect. However 16 members of County Council don’t seem to want the public to be informed or have a real say.