At noon today, Mr. Aker, the Ontario Municipal Board
Adjudicator adjourned the hearing for the second time over the question of
title. At this time, there is no clear
fact of ownership of the property by Dunpar because the deadline for objections
to the granting of title has not yet been reached. Any interested party has until July 5th, 2010 to file
an objection. This was clearly stated
in the notice placed in the Etobicoke Guardian last week. In fact, that notice could be viewed as a
public admission from the developer’s lawyer that they were going in
to the OMB hearing yet again without being able to clearly show the OMB that
they actually own the property.
The
Adjudicator made it clear to all the parties that he had no choice but to adjourn
the hearing of the appeal “sine die” until clear title has been established and
the title process completed (“sine die” means that no particular day has been
set for it to start again). This in all likelihood won't be until the Fall of this year. Given that Mr.
Aker will be leaving the Board in August, this means that the hearing will have
to start from the beginning before a new OMB member. It is imperative that all
interested residents once again attend on that new hearing date.
There was one other matter that influenced his
decision. Dunpar has asked the Crown
(the Ministry of Natural Resources) for permission to build a seawall on the
Crown’s property at the shoreline but the MNR has refused to even consider this
until the OMB has made a decision on the building application. Dunpar wants to build this seawall against
the City’s and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority’s objections in
order to try and get around regulations that say there must be an open, unbuilt
“hazards buffer” zone of 32 meters from the shore to protect structures from
one-in-a-hundred-years storm events.
After the OMB hearing was adjourned, a dozen residents went to the Mayor's office at City Hall and spoke at length with a Constituency Liaison staffer from his office. The residents outlined the community's concerns, were given a full hearing and were promised an immediate, investigative follow up by the Mayor's office.
After the OMB hearing was adjourned, a dozen residents went to the Mayor's office at City Hall and spoke at length with a Constituency Liaison staffer from his office. The residents outlined the community's concerns, were given a full hearing and were promised an immediate, investigative follow up by the Mayor's office.
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