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03 20 1996 Sp Public Minutes 8 8 ,. !.'D CORPOItA~XOll OP !.'D -.rowlI81aP OP oao-KBDOftB 8PZCXUa PUBLXC K1ŒI'DWJ WBDDSDa.Y. &RCII 20. 1ttC . ':15 P... - COU1lCXL <::DII8D8 PXPT'!'-POURTH KBBTXNG 19t4-1tt' COUNCXL (P32/94) The following members of Council were present: Deputy Mayor Murray Martin Councillor Walter Dickie Councillor Don Bell Councillor Neil craig Councillor Ron Sommers AJ:)sent: Mayor Ian Beard Councillor Larry Cotton staff Present: Andria Leigh, Development Co- ordinator, Jennifer Zieleniewski, Treasurer/Acting Administrator Also Present Were: Don P. Hanney, Paul Hanney, Ian Rogers, Marshall Green, Alastair Crawford, Jean Crawford, Lance Whitmore, Christine Whitmore, Earl Briggs, Linda Groves, Bruce Hicks, George Jonson, H. Toohey, Leighton Buchanan, Thomas R. McIntyre, Ann McIntyre, Peter Hanney. Deputy Mayor Murray Martin chaired the meeting. Deputy Mayor Martin opened the meeting by explaining to those present that this Public Meeting was to receive public comments with respect to a proposed Official Plan Amendment, under provisions of Section 17, of the Planning Act. The applicant has applied to amend Official Plan Amendment No. 22 which designated the site as "Special Policy Area No. 1." This amendment would expand the area to be designated special Policy Area No.1, thereby expanding the area to be used for the temporary special events park. To date, the Council of the Corporation of the Township of Oro- Medonte have not made a decision on this application, other than proceeding to this Public Meeting. Only after comments are received from the Public, requested agencies and Township Staff, within the appropriate time period, will Council make a decision on this application. Notice of the Public Meeting was mailed out on February 19, 1996, to all property owners within 400 feet of the subject lands. Notice of the Public Meeting was also placed in both the Barrie Examiner and Orillia Packet and Times on February 19, 1996. Deputy Mayor Martin then asked the Clerk if there had been any correspondence received on this matter. The Clerk responded by indicating that correspondence had been received from: H. Toohey, Oro District Lions Club, Banbury Food Market Limited, Barrie Speedway Park, Oro Agriculture Society, Hardwood Hills Cross Country Ski & Mountain Bike Centre and the Simcoe County District Health Unit all of which were in support of the application or did not have an objection. All correspondence was read for the record. - 2 - The Deputy Mayor then stated that those persons present would be afforded the opportunity of asking questions with respect to the proposed Amendment. He then turned the meeting over to the Development Co-ordinator, Mrs. Andria Leigh, to explain the purpose and effect of the proposed Official Plan Amendment. Andria Leigh: 8 Thank you Mr. Deputy Mayor. As the Deputy Mayor has indicated, the purpose of tonight's meeting is to obtain public comments with respect to the Official Plan Amendment on the subject property. There is a Zoning By-law before Council as well but the public meeting has already been addressed on that issue. Before Council tonight is a Official Plan Amendment to expand the area of the Special Policy Area #1, which was adopted by the Ontario Municipal Board in Official Plan Amendment No. 22. Essentially what we are looking at is expanding the 11 acres that was approved in that Official Plan Amendment to a larger area of the 112 acres owned by the Family Event Park without the inclusion of the Environmental Protection Area. Basically, at this point in time, we are looking to get comments from the public in regards to the Family Event Park and see where Council wishes to proceed at this point in time. Mr. Deputy Mayor, I would indicate that the applicant and his solicitor are in the room and may wish to make some further comments prior to the members of the public. Deputy Mayor Martin: Please come to the mike. Ian Rogers: Thank you Mr. Deputy Mayor. This is a red letter day for me, not only is it my birthday but it is the first day of spring. I drove up from Toronto after talking to your planner and she said we might be cancelling and I am so pleased that Council has proceeded with the hearing. 8 There is a long history as perhaps some of you may be aware but I am not going to bore you with all the events. Suffice it to say that I was only here once before the previous council. I did however appear on behalf of Mr. Hanney and the Barrie Automotive Flea Market before the Committee of Adjustment for the Township, before the ontario Municipal Board, appearing to represent the Barrie Automotive Flea Market on charges laid for contravening the By-law in Provincial Offences Court, appearing on appeal from the municipal charges. Appearing, as well, and as an applicant to quash a By-law that was so poorly drafted that I think the solicitor who drafted it was let go and anyways, that firm is no longer acting. That again, is past history. A more recent occurrence was an attempt by the Township to enforce the site plan agreement by way of an injunction and that of course met with firm resistance. The legal position there was that you can't enforce a site plan agreement as well as a By-law and that was what the Township was advised and attempted to do and we succeeded in getting a favourable ruling on that before a Judge of the General Division. The Township appealed and that brought it to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal agreed with the lower Court Judge and upheld the decision that the site plan agreement was unenforceable. (inaudible) Those are the bare bones of it and I just want to say that this is not the first time, Mr. Deputy Mayor, but I do wish to say that I hope it will be the last time. I think it is fair to say that we have peace, peace in our Township. It was contemplated, when the ini tial application was before this Council and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Municipal - 3 - Ian Rogers: 8 Board, that the scope of the events, number of events permitted would be (inaudible) and direct reference was made to that in the decision of Mr. Kelly for the Municipal Board and the reference was also made to that, that the events would be added to. Reference was made to that in the Official Plan Amendment No. 22 which in effect this application will amend. So, it is not something that has just sprung up, it (inaudible). That has been common place and is now come to fruition about approximately 10 years later. without saying anYmore than calling your attention to the obligation of this Council that are set out in the Minutes of Settlement that was finally arrived at that the council will undertake to co-operate with the applicant in making application to the ontario Municipal Board for approval of the By-law. There is no reference to that to the Official Plan Amendment at this time, it was contemplated that we would have, that we would have to amend the plan so as to make the By-law conform. But anyways, I think the intent is clear that I think the plan is all bearing out (inaudible) Council to co-operate again in making this application to the Board and that the Board in its wisdom, I think they will be happy to be rid of it. If the Board approves the By-law and the Official Plan Amendment then the By-law comes back here and if council so decides or if it is final (inaudible). Deputy Mayor Martin: Thank you. Any questions from (inaudible) and happy birthday. People of my age don't want to have birthdays (inaudible) any other further statements from the public? Marshall Green: 8 My name is Marshall Green and I represent Dr. and Mrs. McIntyre and I am waiting to hear from the public information meeting and at this point in time, I have not received any public information (inaudible) In 1994, I put myself on record on behalf of the McIntyre's as wanting notice of all the proceedings with respect to this application. I didn't even get notice of this meeting. I found out about it by accident and the McIntyres' also did not get notice of the meetings even though they are suppose to. This morning I called and asked for all of the reports so I could get a handle on what was happening tonight and what the proposal is and I got a faxed letter from Mr. Stagg with four sheets of paper attached to it indicating that it was so voluminous that he could not put it through the fax machine and I was expecting that at least it would be explained tonight. What are we approving tonight, what is the new OPA. What has happened that can't happen today? What is being approved. I hear that the zoning By-law is not going to be dealt with tonight because, I guess it is the same as the other one? I haven't seen the first one yet so I don't know what the first one is. Among the people who are here, the McIntyres and myself, but, Mr. Hanney but if we are the only ones who go all the way back to that first application. I represented the McIntyres' and a couple of ratepayers at that first OMB hearing and I found Mr. Rogers, brief analogy interesting when he talked about the lawyer that was fired because he didn't draw the By- law very well, Mr. Rogers of course, wasn't there for that OMB hearing. That By-law was drawn as a way of appeasi,ng the ratepayers on the instruction of the Board in order to g1ve the ratepayers some protection. Mr. Kelly said that the Township should get together and draw a By-law that would make everybody happy, he would order it. And that is clear the co-operation Mr. Hanney agreed to attaching the site plan to the By-law and then immediately, sought to challenge that in the Courts. - 4 - Marshall Green: 8 I think the people who are living near the site would like to see the new text of the By-law and the Official Plan to make sure that this time, even though Mr. Hanney is here supporting it again, that it is bullet proof. We would also like to see what kind of protection they are going to get. The other thing that I think is very important, knowing that all the ratepayers in the area are very interested in this and knowing that there is at least one lawyer who would like to know about the proposal. No one involves us at all. And here we come now where apparently there are voluminous reports too voluminous to send me. There is no explanation given at this meeting and it is at this point in the process that the public is being involved. In my experience with these kinds of processes, the public is usually involved within a few weeks of the application being made so the public input can be gauged and used in designing the By-law and I don't think that has happened here. To start off with, before we end this public meeting, I would like to know what the proposal is. I would like to have somebody show me a map. I don't even see a map here tonight, and explain to me what the permitted uses are to be. Explain to me what areas it affects. Show me where the people in the area reside and how they are proposed to be protected. Lets have a look at the traffic which was a major issue and not only traffic entering off Highway 11 but the traffic up and down the concession road. Lets have all the public information at the public information night. Thank you. Andria Leigh: Thank you Mr. Deputy Mayor. If I can maybe explain a little bit further to Mr. Green's comments. What we are essentially looking at tonight is the Official Plan Amendment. There was a Public Meeting on October of 1994 in the regards to the Zoning By-law with the specif ic uses and a copy of that By-law was available at that point in time. I can't explain, if you were not at that meeting, I can certainly provide you with a copy of that By-law. It listed about... Marshall Green: Has it been passed? Andria Leigh: 8 No, it has not been passed at this point in time. There are about ten different temporary event uses including expanded Flea Markets, different concert events, agricultural, boat shows, those types of crafts and hobbies that were included wi thin those permitted uses on the property. What the Official Plan Amendment is looking at at this point, is expanding to include the entire property other than the Environmental Protection Lands as part of the designation for that Special Policy Area which would include all the area that was previously zoned in 1987 by the OMS to allow for the temporary events park. I can certainly show you a copy of the Notice. I don't have a large scale map, we don't have one available at this point in time but we can show you the small scale map at this point in time. Essentially we are dealing with the Official Plan. We don't have a proposed document. We don't ask the applicant to pr~v~de one at this point in time because we haven't made the dec1s1on whether we want to approve an Official Plan Amendment at this point in time. We wanted to hear comments as to is the permitted use feasible for most people on the property? So I can certainly get you a copy of the Zoning By-law of the permitted - 5 - Andria Leigh: 8 uses if that would help you with tonight's meeting. It was made available last year. In regards to the reports that I did send you today, I believe there were 12 pages that I sent you about reports in regards to buffering and other issues on the property. with respect to traffic, we did receive letters from the Ministry of Transportation which I also provided you, that they had looked at the expansion of the 8th Line and that they did not have concerns at this point in time with traffic because of that third lane being provided on the 8th Line and that was also provided to you this morning. We only got your fax this morning as well, so it did not leave us a lot of time to get you that information. The reason the information we provided was limited is that we are solely dealing with the Official Plan Amendment and my understanding was that you had been provided all other information as we went through the process. If that is incorrect, I can certainly provide you with any other information you would require before Council makes a decision on this and you would have an opportunity to send comments into them. I think that would address the majority of the issues. If Mr. Green has other comments, I can certainly address them. Marshall Green: Yes, I have a comment on the ratepayers in the area. I am concerned that if I didn't get notice, that the rest here didn't get notice (inaudible) under the Planning Act requires that certain notice are done and if people who indicated that they (inaudible) Councillor Dickie: Thank you Mr. Deputy Mayor. notice to the public? Andria could you respond were there Andria Leigh: Yes I can Councillor Dickie, I am just looking to find the list of notified persons within our file. I can start by saying that it is the practice of the municipality that we put a copy of the notice in both the Barrie. and Orillia papers as well as circulating to anyone within 400 feet of the subject land and Marshall Green: But the Planning Act also says that... Deputy Mayor Martin: I don't want to get into an argument (inaudible) 8 Andria Leigh: Further to that, the Planning Act does indicate that anyone asking for written notice of any hearing should be provided that notice and, between the changing of the file between Mr. stagg and myself, I was unaware of Mr. Green's letter. We did provide him a copy of the notice but it was not sent out to him on the scheduled February 15, 1995, so that may clarify it for Mr. Green. Now it is my understanding that as he is acting on behalf of the McIntyres, the notice was to be sent to him and not directly to the McIntyres and that is the letter that is filed that he is acting on behalf of McIntyres, to know of the events of the property. - 6 - Jennifer zieleniewski: Mr. Chairman, I was just asking Andria to reiterate if he didn't get his notice on February 15th, with everyone else, when did he get his notice and she believes it was at the end of February, she is just looking. Marshall Green: March 5th. Andria Leigh: 8 It was March 5th, he is correct on that. Deputy Mayor Martin: Any questions at this point from Councillors? Ian Rogers: A point of clarification, not arguing with my friend, the By-law I was referring to Mr. Deputy Mayor, perhaps I didn't make it clear, was the Licensing By-law not the Rezoning By-law. That was the one that was quashed. Marshall Green: 8 (inaudible) as I see it this is a very significant proposal for this Township. It is going to impact, certainly it is going to attract thousands and make this Township very visible but it also going to impact people up and down that highway and up and down the sideroad. It is a very significant proposal. A few things that I did read indicated things like, we can do away with traffic studies because certain representation has been made. There is Environmental Protection land nearby. Quite frankly, I have never seen a proposal this size go to a public meeting in which there wasn't even a planner here, a consultant planner hired by the proponent to answer questions and explain things. A proposal that is calling for thousands of vehicles doesn't have a traffic consul tant here to explain things. I think you owe it to the people up and down that street, if no one else, to adjourn the public meeting today, make sure that some people are here who can answer questions and give us time to look at the reports that apparently have been built up over the last couple of years so that we can ask some intelligent questions. I don't think it is very satisfactory that we come here today, we hear some letters of support and then to go away thinking that this is a proposal that apparently everybody likes because no one is here to argue it. If we were able to have time to put together some intelligent questions, with all due respect, there are not the people here tonight who could likely answer them. I think that this meeting should be adjourned for a couple of weeks to allow us the time to review the reports and to come back here and I would be willing even to list, to give Mr. Rogers or someone on behalf of the group a list of various concerns so they can have the people come back here and hopefully answer questions. Andria Leigh: I am not sure exactly what concerns Mr. Green is enquiring about. He has talked about traffic. Some of them certainly, we can probably address. If he wishes to leave a list we could respond to the rest of his concerns. I mean, he has talked g~nerally of some concerns. I would like to know specifically - 7 - Andria Leigh: what they are and see if maybe we can address them at this point in time for him. Deputy Mayor Hartin: Would you get in touch with Andria? Marshall Green: 8 I am willing to talk with Andria but until I hear a little bit more about the proposal, I am a little bit at a loss. Has there been a noise study done with respect to the concerts. Mr. & Mrs. McIntyre find that even now the concerts that are run at the Speedway, which I think isn't suppose to run concerts, already impact on the noise point of view. I have been dealing, on their behalf with the Ministry of Environment over the noise of the Speedway itself. Has there been a noise study done for the proposal. I understand there is no traffic study being required. Why is that? Who has done a traffic count even to indicate that they should not need a traffic study? Has there been an Environmental report sought with respect to the EP areas nearby. It is not going to be included but has there been any study done as to what the impact might be on that EP area? Where is the parking? I have not, again, I will get a copy of it I suppose. One of the major concerns of the affairs that have been run in the past is parking spilling over on the streets. Where is parking? How is that being handled? will it be surfaced, will it be gravelled? If I was able to see some of the reports and had an opportunity, I am going to need a couple of weeks to read them over, I may be able to give you a list of questions but I can't do it on the twelve pieces of paper that was handed to me today. Deputy Mayor: I don't want any arguments between lawyers. 8 Ian Roger: I am just concerned that my friend is just belabouring the shop worn arguments that have been raised every time we have been before this Councilor the Municipal Board. Now he has had since the 5th of March, ten days to come up to the Council to inspect the files. The notice quite clearly says "and additional information regarding this amendment is available for inspection at that time". I don't think he took advantage of that opportunity. Now he comes in and says I need more time. Somebody, if he couldn't make it himself, then somebody from his office surely could have. So all these matters the Planning staff have considered the Ministry of Transportation has determined that a traffic study is not necessary and that is quite clear. There was some considerable correspondence on that between the Planners and ourselves and the Transportation. Parking, there is ample information and as well, plans showing how the parking is to be handled and why we should adjourn to accommodate Mr. Green. I don't know who he represents besides the McIntyres. He is talking about people up and down the line. Are they here? He is only representing two people who are way down the end of the road and sure there is some concern but they are the only ones who object. Deputy Mayor Martin: Are there any other comments from the audience? Council? 8 8 . , . - 8 - Deputy Mayor Martin: There being no further questions or comments, when being called for the third time, the Mayor in closing the meeting, thanked those in attendance for their participation and advised that Council would consider all matters before reaching a decision. He then advised those present that if they wished to be notified of the passing of the proposed By-law, they should leave their name and address with the Clerk. MOTION NO.1 Moved by craig, seconded by Sommers Be it resolved that this special Public Meeting of Council (Special Policy Area No.1) now be adjourned at 7:48 p.m. Carried. ~~¿ LL~ DEPUTY CLERK LYNDA AIKEN