Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 01 November 2016

The Town’s “servicing allocation” policy deserves more attention than it gets.

Developments – even with planning approval - can’t go ahead unless they are hooked up to the water mains and sewage pipes and this “servicing allocation” will be rationed until 2024.

From time to time the Region assigns new capacity to its nine consituent municipalities and they in turn decide how it is divvied up in their patch and which developers are lucky enough to get an allocation. The latest figures show Newmarket is getting just over 2% of the total new capacity being made available by the Region.

It's time to Party!

With the completion of Davis Drive, Mayor Van Bynen declared it was “time to party”. But if too many developers come knocking at the door they will have to be sent away empty handed because of these capacity constraints.

This hasn’t stopped the Town from drawing up a marketing strategy for Davis Drive, designed to lure developers to the corridor even if some of them won't be able to build anything there. What an exquisite irony.

The issue – which sounds dry and technical - rarely rates a mention. A report to yesterday’s Special Committee of the Whole on the 2016 Six-Month Servicing Allocation Review, moved by Dave Kerwin and seconded by Jane Twinney, received no debate at all and was carried nem con.

Regional Councillor John Taylor chose not to comment even though he had been quite agitated (for him) when a related report went up to York Region’s Committee of the Whole on 8 September 2016.

Why is the servicing allocation policy so important?

Water and sewage capacity is effectively rationed in Newmarket until 2024 with the completion of the Upper York Sewage Solutions (UYSS) infrastructure project. York Region’s engineers describe this as a

“sanitary servicing solution to accommodate growth in Holland Landing, Queensville, Sharon and parts of Aurora and Newmarket”.

When complete, UYSS will provide additional servicing capacity for over 80,000 people. (See Note 1 below)

This means that even though a development application gets approval from the Town it has to wait in line until it gets a servicing allocation.

The Town has development applications on file that would require servicing capacity for 7,104 people. We now know there is capacity for an additional 5,784 people up until the end of 2021 – five years away.

Some of the Town’s development applications were approved years ago but the landowner is sitting on the land, choosing not to develop (22 George/39 Davis Drive). Others such as the Clock Tower are awaiting a Council decision. We are told the paperwork for the Townhouse development on protected meadowland at Silken Lauman, a stone’s throw from the proposed new GO Rail Station at Mulock Drive, is being finalized for the OMB. King George School rates a mention as does the controversial Gorham Street apartments. The full list is shown at Appendix A in yesterday’s report. (Agenda item 4)

If there is a burst of development activity in the Centres and Corridors it should make it less likely that developments elsewhere in Town will get a servicing allocation. But it is not quite so straightforward.

“Orderly development”

The Town says it prioritises developments in the Centres and Corridors but that is not the whole story. The report says:

“In addition to the (Servicing Allocation) Policy’s location hierarchy, which seeks to direct servicing capacity to urban centres as a priority, staff also considers matters such as orderly development, completion of communities, and maintaining an on-going sales and building program when considering the distribution of servicing capacity.”

The Town, if it so chooses, could take a much more muscular approach to servicing capacity, directing development to the Centres and Corridors and away from the Gorham Streets of this world where inappropriate development is being shoe-horned into stable residential neighbourhoods in the name of “intensification”.

Glenway

Talking of which… The Marianneville development which is transforming Glenway is only proceeding now because Marianville entered into an agreement with the Town and Region to take action

“to reduce the inflow and infiltration of groundwater and stormwater into the sanitary sewer system… in an effort to make the system more efficient, in effect creating additional capacity in the system”.

So while capacity is currently rationed, inventive developers can move up to the front of the line if they come up with an “Inflow and Infiltration” program that ticks all the right boxes and they are prepared to pay for it.

Taylor “disappointed and concerned” about impact on Newmarket

Back in September at a meeting of the Region’s Committee of the Whole Taylor confessed he was

“disappointed and concerned with what we have in front of us”.

He said the 2016 capacity assignment (which looks forward five years) gave Newmarket additional capacity for 1,500 people through until the end of 2021 out of a total of 71,838 across the Region’s nine municipalities. He told his Regional colleagues the Town was meeting every landowner in the Davis Drive corridor to (a) drum up and (b) gauge interest in intensification. He said the unused capacity shown in the report (4,284) was misleading and that it was much smaller.

The Town could say no

The Town is asking developers to get moving on the Davis corridor but he says

“We could end up having to say no.”

Taylor says the outlook is very uncertain. And this, he says with mild exasperation, is happening in a designated Growth Centre where the Province has already spent millions on new transit infrastructure.

The Region’s Commissioner for Environmental Services, the very impressive Erin Mahoney, tells Taylor the points he makes are very well taken. She talks about the possibility of another Inflow and Infiltration pilot unlocking a further 3,800 for development use in Newmarket. But she is light on detail. (See note 2 below)

The bottom line is this. There is not enough servicing capacity to support significant development along Davis Drive – should the development industry take the bait that the Town is now offering through its marketing initiatives.

And in the absence of significant intensification in the Centres and Corridors, such servicing capacity as Newmarket holds could be allocated to the wrong kind of development in glaringly inappropriate neighbourhoods in Town.

No doubt all done in the name of “orderly development”.

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Note 1. Yesterday’s report uses a standard paragraph which tells us:

“Staff now understands that the delivery of the UYSS is expected to be delayed until 2024”

and will report back with updates from York Region.

This phraseology is replicated in the May 2016 and April 2015 servicing allocation reports. You can also read the May 2014 report here. 

The UYSS project includes as a component the twinning of the Newmarket forcemain (a pipe that carries wastewater under pressure) in 2019. This will increase servicing capacity by 1,500 people to a total of 5,784 people which is available for growth to the year end 2021. This Newmarket figure compares with 21,000 for East Gwillimbury. (See Table above)

Note 2. On 22 September 2016, the Regional Council agreed an amendment (to the 8 September report) authorizing staff:

“to consider a second inflow infiltration reduction project in Newmarket based on the same general principles set out in the first pilot project (ie Glenway) provided that the first pilot project is completed or it can be demonstrated that the second developer funded inflow and infiltration project does not impede the ability of the first pilot project (Glenway) to achieve the allocation needed to complete its development up to the maximum capacity stipulated by the project agreement.”

Note 3. A further report (Water and Wastewater Capital Infrastructure Status Update) goes to the Region’s Committee of the Whole for information this Thursday (3 November 2016). It confirms the figures set out in the 8 September 2016 report.

Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 28 October 2016

I am sitting outside the Small Claims Court this morning, waiting for the fun to begin, when John Taylor shuffles in looking like death warmed up.

He tells me he is unwell and is going to ask for a postponement. My heart sinks. I tell him the trial is not coming on for an hour or two and by then he may feel better. He shakes his head saying he can’t think straight.

His two children have been up all night vomiting. And now the virus has struck at Taylor. He has been awake for ten hours and has been feeling nauseous.  It sounds like a variation on the dreaded norovirus. Aaaaargh!

Later….

Now we all file into the tiny Small Claims Courtroom and I see in front of me Deputy Judge Jack Zwicker.

Taylor asks for a postponement and outlines his symptoms. Urgh!

Now Di Muccio and her husband, John Blommesteyn, affect sympathy while saying the matter has been postponed before and it is all very unfortunate. Blommesteyn is champing at the bit and is raring to go.

Taylor says that if push comes to shove he will stay though he may have to excuse himself from time to time for a bathroom break. Now I am feeling queasy.

Judge Jack won’t buy it. What if this thing is infectious? The Judge says he has heard what he has heard and he is going to postpone the trial until the first available date in the new year. And he won’t allow Taylor to ask for another postponement.

As the clerk leaves the Courtroom to get photocopies of the written order which has just been penned by Judge Jack, he, the judge, suggests the time could be occupied by talking about the action. It sounds as if he is going to propose some kind of impromptu settlement conference.

Now Judge Jack is looking directly at me.

“And who are you?”

I am ready for this and tell him loudly and confidently that I am a member of the public.

Di Muccio yelps:

“No he’s not! He is a blogger. And he has called my husband fat!!”

(This, M’Lud, is a dastardly untruth!! I have described Mr Blommesteyn as “well-padded” and “rotund” but never “fat”.)

Now she goes for the jugular.

“And he is a friend of the defendant!”

This is now getting serious. That's reputational damage! I could sue!

The ashen faced Taylor is determined not to set that hare running:

“He is not my friend.”

Now Judge Jack looks directly at me and says with a smile:

“I am going to say nothing and you will have nothing to blog about!”

Wanna bet?

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Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 26 October 2016

Bob Forrest’s planning application for the Clock Tower which goes to the Town’s Committee of the Whole on 28 November 2016 will be in exactly the same form as the application that went before the second Statutory Public meeting in May of this year.  

It is the same seven storey monstrosity that we know so well.

This removes a lingering uncertainty. I thought Bob would go for one last tweak.

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Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 26 October 2016

Background: To the Small Claims Court in Newmarket for the latest episode in the Matilde Di Muccio  (aka “Maddie”) soap opera. She is suing Regional Councillor John Taylor for defamation. In March 2016 she amended her libel claim to include:

“misfeasance and malfeasance in public office during a March 2^nd 2015 Town of Newmarket Council meeting, abuse of power, intentional infliction of mental suffering and injurious falsehoods, targeted malice, breach of confidence and breach of privacy; and, in doing so committed a legal tort in the eyes of the law.”

Days ago she sought to amend her claim yet again to remove her charge of libel against Taylor. But to do this she first had to seek the permission of the Court by way of a “notice of motion”. (Di Muccio wants to drop the action for libel because she believes it is “out-of-time” and would not succeed.)

The trial (Di Muccio v Taylor) is scheduled for 10am on Friday 28 October 2016 at the Small Claims Court in Eagle Street, Newmarket. 

No death stare

I am already at the Court when Maddie Di Muccio arrives with her well-padded husband in tow. There are only three seats for the public and I am determined to bag one of them. She is stoney-faced (nothing new there) and doesn’t acknowledge my presence. Our eyes do not meet and I am spared the death stare this morning.  

John Taylor is looking relaxed insofar as one can be in these peculiar circumstances.

We file into the tiny court room and I see in front of me Deputy Judge Paul Gollom who looks the part with his silver hair and black robe with the splendid red sash. He has a learned expression on his face and quickly shows himself to be on top of things. I breathe a sigh of relief.

Really minor

Now Di Muccio is explaining to the judge that she is not allowed to make any amendments to her claim without the Court’s permission and she wants to make a “really minor” change. She tells the Judge she is not arguing about the alleged libel – without saying why she is dropping it. The charge of defamation stands.

Now Judge Gollum is walking us through Friday’s trial (which Di Muccio asserts will last two days). He tells us the presiding judge will ask “What are the real issues?”

Looking at Di Muccio, he says the Judge will ask: “What actually are you claiming for? What do you believe the claim is all about?” He will want to narrow down the issues and, once everything is clear, we could hear him say:

“Here we are. Let’s go!”

I am warming to Deputy Judge Gollum who is clear, precise and even tempered – unlike some of his brothers-in-law.

“off the table”

Now the Judge strikes out paragraph 29 of Di Muccio’s claim and libel disappears from the charge sheet. Just like that! Puff!

“Libel and slander are now off the table.”

An exasperated Taylor says this is his 6^th time in Court and he confesses it is difficult to know what he is actually being accused of.

Di Muccio flares her nostrils in the way she does and snorts. He has known for months what my amended claim says!

The Judge is now looking at Taylor. He says the plaintiff (Di Muccio) is alleging defamation and misfeasance in office. Besmirching someone’s reputation can be done verbally or in writing – that would ordinarily be libel. The burden is on the plaintiff to establish this.

What am I being accused of?

He advises Taylor to explain to the trial Judge that, in order to defend himself, he needs to know exactly what he is being accused of and what the elements are.

So far so good. I am keeping up with this without difficulty.

But now the Judge warns:

“This is a complicated area of the law. When you come here you are expected to know the law - even if you are self represented.” (And both are.)

He says both sides can cite cases if they believe it will help the Court.

In my mind’s eye, I can see Di Muccio marching into a legal quagmire.

I learn Di Muccio will bring one other witness (other than herself) and will, of course, present her evidence first.

If it doesn’t hold water, the trial Judge can say at that point it has not been pled.

Or we could be entertained for two whole days.

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You can read Di Muccio's claim and Taylor's defence here.