Coun. Gary Burroughs says challenging the Ontario Land Tribunal is about more than money, it’s a matter of morality. 

Discussions became heated during Tuesday evening’s committee of the whole meeting as councillors discussed their course of action with the tribunal, in regards to a controversial 41-unit development at 223 and 227 Mary St.

The proposed development requires an official plan and zoning bylaw amendment, which town staff recommended.

In September, a tie vote from councillors against the necessary bylaw amendments resulted in an overall refusal of the proposal. 

The applicant, NPG Planning Solutions, appealed this decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Applications for an official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment were considered at a committee of the whole planning meeting and a following council meeting in September.

At the committee of the whole meeting, the applications were approved in principle, they were later lifted for discussion at the council meeting and approved.

At that same council meeting, the amendments were quashed.

Coun. Maria Mavridis said voting on the bylaw was procedural since the application was already approved.

“To not approve our own bylaw makes zero sense to me,” she said.

Tuesday night, councillors voted in favour of settling the appeal. Only councillors Burroughs, Sandra O’Connor and Tim Balasiuk voted against the motion. 

Before voting, Burroughs urged councillors to put legal costs aside and act on principle. 

“Sometimes there’s right over wrong and it’s very important that we don’t take it casually,” he said. 

Coun. Erwin Wiens argued that properly managing council funds is a matter of right and wrong. 

“Councillor Burroughs mentioned the budget. Last budget meeting we talked about cutting winter coats to our bylaw officers, cutting from our parks and not fixing roads. That’s the result of fighting something (at the tribunal),” he said.  

Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa dismissed accusations that council is simply taking staff direction. 

“This was a report that was approved by council,” he said, referring to the Mary St. rezoning application shown to council on Sept. 24.

“We have council-approved minutes to confirm that decision.”

Some members of council are “politically motivated” when voting against the bylaw, Zalepa said. 

“As far as I’m concerned, it makes you suspect to legal recourse,” he said.

“We’ve got a council-approved report, we have council-approved minutes to approve that decision, but a failure to pass the bylaw to implement.”

O’Connor took issue with the accusation of being politically motivated, she said in response.

“I voted the same way consistently on this issue and council did vote to not implement it, so that is a council decision as well,” O’Connor said. 

Certain council members deny 80 per cent of all development applications, Wiens said during the discussion period.

“I never hear a good argument as to why it doesn’t fit with our staff,” he said. 

Wiens said that Zalepa was right to refer to these actions as being political.

“It sounds good: ‘We fought the big bad developer,'” he said.

Mavridis gave the chair to O’Connor to share her feelings during the meeting. 

The units proposed provide the exact kind of housing Niagara-on-the-Lake is desperate for, Mavridis said.

“Yes it’s surrounded by single-family homes, but that’s what we have here. That’s the only property left to build on— the vacant property we have all have existing homes around them,” she said.

Developers have been accommodating at responding to council requests too, she said. 

Mavridis was offended at the way things went down in regards to opposing the bylaw, she said.

“I do feel the application was approved,” she said. 

While the motion to settle and approve the bylaw was approved, final approval will be determined at the upcoming council meeting on Nov. 26.

juliasacco@niagaranow.com