Since amalgamation planning…

Since amalgamation planning departments, in my opinion, have become very powerful, in that they are making decisions that should be made by our elected officials. Example: In areas of multiple land use choices and possibilities, bias and one sided reports are submitted by planning, giving specific direction rather than leaving the choice to council. Changing the wording to every "Municipality will have a planning committee" may help the citizens of Ontario Communities have a more meaningful say in the growth and development of their settlement area.

Municipalities need provincial watchdogs to ensure that they are following the pps to the best of their ability. The desired outcome of applying good planning principles to have people live, work, play and shop in a small radius to reduce the carbon imprint is second to an economy driven plan.
Through out our county there exists unbalanced towns, villages and hamlets some are heavy in the residential component with very little industry and ours is heavy in the industrial component with little housing available. This means almost everyone is driving to and from work.

The appeal process is too costly. We recently went through a OMB hearing in which we won. We paid for our lawyer and planner as well as our taxes paid for the Town's lawyer and planner. I have nothing but praise for the Ontario board who listened to our planning issue and confirmed that our vision for our community was in line with provincial policy and the Town's wasn't.

However the process is not for the faint of heart and it takes a strong willed community to see it through. This is why I feel that each Municipality must have a planning committee composed of members from the public with real authority to help monitor planning decisions before amendments are passed.

In many cases, such as ours, none of the planners in our planning department live in our municipality. I would like to suggest that it be made mandatory that at least one of the planners in the department must live in the municipality they help plan.

Thank you for the opportunity to share with you my thoughts.