"The subject who is truly…

"The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. Junius". As a resident of Ward 27, I am impacted by the developments in my ward. I have attended many Community Consultation meetings, Community Council meetings, and OMB hearings re. developments in this ward and Official Plans for this ward. A significant investment of my time and energy. I fully appreciate that one cannot stop change, but I believe that one can impact change, hopefully for the better. The development pressures on the downtown wards is intense, far higher than some of the inner-suburb wards. The developers have paid staff and lawyers dedicated to making their projects come to fruition. It is in their private interest to do so. But this development can negatively impact existing residents in these wards and put an extreme burden on the infrastructure in these wards. Public pain for private gain. The citizens of this city have a right to influence the developments in their neighbourhoods. We have a representative democracy. We elect representatives who we believe will best represent our interests and who will make the best decisions on our behalf. The citizens are amateurs and elected representatives are few. Meanwhile, the developers have paid, experienced professionals defending their interests and these costs are tax deductible. The citizens and their elected representatives have their planning department to provide the technical and legal expertise to support them. But how do you have consistency in decision making? How do elected representatives not get out played by private developers? How do you prevent arbitrariness which would allow exceptions for every project? By having the planning department prepare comprehensive Official Plans using applied theory, best practices, and community input. TOCore is such a plan. It builds on the tremendous amount of work, time, and effort that the citizens of these wards, their elected representatives, and public servants have devoted to this plan, and its predecessors. Development proposals came be prepared in line with the plan and their proposals can be reviewed against the plan to determine if it is in the public interest. And informed recommendations can be made to improve the project proposals to benefit the public interest. TOCore is a tool that the public and their representatives can use in evaluation of private projects that impact them. If you do not approve TOCore, what do you have in mind to replace it? What is your proposed alternative? How did they public have input into your proposed alternative? How materially different would your proposed alternative be to TOCore? If you are not prepared to offer an alternative then it is your responsibility to approve TOCore. Otherwise, you are submitting to arbitrary measures and leaving the development in these wards to private interests and not the public.