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4 stouffvtte suntribune saturday january 6 2007 omb changes could usher in new planning era municipal board used as leverage by developers by david fleischer staff writer for a long time the final say in howyour hometown is planned has been out of the hands of local politi cians but that may be changing the ontario municipal board omb unknown to most citizens is unique in canada it has served as an appeals board ensuring deci sions by municipalities fall in line with provincial planning guide lines but bill 51 which came into effect jan 1 introduced a series of reforms aimed at making it more considerate to all until now the omb has had the final word on local development issues and has even come to be regarded as a star chamber full of unelected board members willing to approve the plans developers have had rejected by councils municipalities environmental ists and private citizens have expressed frustrations as one after another decisions have been taken out of their hands while the new legislation doesnt get rid of the omb it has somewhat defanged it under the new rules the omb is instructed to have regard of any decision made by council and to only review the evi dence already presented to them unless new evidence is deemed crucial municipalities must update their official plans every five years developers can no longer appeal to the omb until after coun cil has been satisfied they have it puts us in a better place but we have to put ourselves in a position to take advantage dave barrow richmond hill mayor been presented with any evidence they feel they need and council can now dictate mat ters of design scale and appearance in considering applications despite the progress concerns have been raised about the ability of citizens and public interest groups to be involved because no funding has been earmarked for them and because the omb will only look at evidence already pre sented to council a letter to the province from the sierra legal defence fund warned some of the amendments would not only make effective participa tion more difficult but may mean a total block to participation environmental defence canada have been involved in numerous local cases including a recent deci sion to approve development in the north leslie area of richmond hill they also warned the absence of special funding places communi ty and public interest groups at a serious disadvantage at omb hear ings compared to the significant financial resources of developers so strong is the ombs hold that municipalities are sometimes forced to compromise on develop ments out offear that a board deci sion will be even worse that is what happened in toron to where the city reluctantly agreed to allow towers of 51 and 37 storeys in height worried the omb would approve the original proposed heights of 54 and 47 storeys fear of the omb is not a major factor we use in evaluating applica tions said ron blake manager of development for markhams west district he said the town tries to work with applicants and it is too early to see how the new planning regime will pan out in richmond hill however that fear has been more prevalent and omb appeals have become so common the towns offices have a room set aside for them mayor dave barrow said the reforms will usher in a new era and allow the towns planning depart ment to dictate policy instead of trying to keep up with and process a neverending series of develop ments p limiifflhhi m rise group int imagine getting paid for trying healthy products you can earn 120 to 2500 as a supplementary income in the next few months just by trying healthy products thats the idea arise with the rise group international ltd we are a dataorganizing marketing firm offering a variety of well- established healthy products actually what we do is pay you for trying these products and providing us with your feedback to find out more call right now 1 886letrise 5387473j wwwtherisegroupcom there is a registration product fee required for 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