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-OP appeals move forward as, 0MB pre-heari g held The Canadian Champion, Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - A3 By ANGELA BLACKBURN Special ta The Champion The GTA and Toroî4to legal com- munities were well represented as a two-day, Ontario Municipal Board (0MB) pre-hearing into 26 appeals of Halton Region's updated Official Plan kicked off Thursday. Approximately 40 lawyers and planners sat at 16 tables in the audi- torium of the Halton Regional Administration Centre on Bronte Road prepared f0 challenge Regional Officia] Plan Amendment (ROPA) 25. The Official Plan (OP) is Halton's blueprint for guiding future growth. lt's a legal docu- ment on which local planning is based and must be reviewed every five years under Ontario's Planning Act. The Officiai Plan of local munic- ipalities -Oakville. Burlington, Milton aîsd Halton Hilîs -must conforru to the Region's plan. Thursday's pre-heartng svas about sentling details of howv and when the appeal of Halton's updat- ed OP -approved by regional council in June 2004 -will be heard. Until it's settled. ongoing reviews of local Official Plans will be stalled. AIl four Halton municipalities were at Thursday's pre-hearing to say they'll attend as participants, but reserve the right f0 upgrade to party status depending on the progress of the hearing. 0MB hearing officers Norman Jackson and John Aker antempted to identify who is f0 be a full party and those te, be participants. They were also there to scope ouf the issues, but despife evident dis- agreement on how long and when the hearing should take place, Mr. Jackson announced before the lunch break that he aimed to begin setting dates. "If there isn't agreement we rnay set a heaning date because this mat- ter has been around for some t ime and has been at the board for a while,. Mr. Jackson told what amounted to a crowd of lawyers and planners. Halton Region is being repre- sented by Toronto lawyers Stephen Waqué and Robert Doumant. as well as Regional lawyer Stan Floras. Thursday moming Mr. Doumani put forward a procedural motion that set out a predicted 15-week hearing that could begin in Lawyers, planners gather to hammer out issues Febniary broken into four phases - the planning horizon; popula- tion targets and distribution; urban structure antd urban expansion. Mr. Doumnani suggested an 0MB decision on each phase could be issued. A fifth phase could deal with site-specific appeals dependent on the outcome of deci- sions made on the first four phases. The Toronto lawyer suggested the 0MB will be asked to adjust the planning horizon - some are asking that the 2021 date upon which it's premised be moved to 2031 -but noted he would argue the 0MB doesn't have the junisdic- lion to make sueh an adjustment. The issue of 0MB jurisdiction gained the significant interest of Mr. Jackson as Mr. Doumani argued the entire plan and ail the required publie meetings associat- cd svith il were based on the 2021 date. Mr. Jackson reserved additional debate on the subjeet of such juris- diction until a later date. Mr. Doumani suggested the plan- ning horizon phase may take four weeks, Phase 2 could deal with aggregate interests over two weeks, Phase 3 could deal with environruental issues over seven weeks and Phase 4 could deal wtth rural system, transportation, coru- mittees, map changes and more see HEARING on page A4 LAIRGE SELECTION I it - , 1 LîiEveryOO For the firsi time in history, everyone in Canada gets the GM Employee Discount* on virtually ai 2005s. You pay what we pay. Not a cent more. *See dealer for complete defaits. Some restrictions do apply. [ Freqý Bread and 5 B. 1 ly Buns0p"ý y aked dally ' Bre we# e q'7 ýdayaun 5wook-