Write a letter that is!

Time is short and we need all the help we can get in the struggle to fix the 202 Second St. rezoning proposal. The deadline to get comments into the OLT Appeal process is November 8th, ten days before the actual Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) hearing between the Developer – Balder and the Town. The whole process is problematic because of the eagerness of the Development Department to approve a terrible Planning Application. Their rationale, and backed up by the Mayor’s constant insistence that “Provincial Rules made us do it – we had no choice” was flawed. For the history of the project and log of the activity that has taken place so far read the posts of the BR from July 17 to July 27 we posted five times in that period about it. Click here and you will get a search result page from the Archives, we have mentioned 202 Second St 45 times in our existence – it is that important to us. Glancing through the list one will notice that the list is comprehensive and however obscure the reference is to the topic it is listed, so be selective.

OK back to the point of this post – Write a letter to the OLT. Click on the image to enlarge it and see the people one should be addressing the email to. Your letter/email should contain your name and address, an introduction of yourself and your connection to the Town and finally your concerns about the proposal.

An interesting note for the writer of this post is that he has been experimenting with AI – ChatGPT to be precise. I call the ‘bot’ “George”. I asked George a couple of questions about the process and the legal issues behind the appeal and how to handle it.

I received a couple  of interesting answers– THESE PAGES ARE COMPLETELY AI FROM CHATGPT SO BE CAREFUL AND CHECK OTHER SOURCES FOR ACCURACY use it as information but two things jump out at us:

Q 1    “Tell me why a referral by Council may not be a decision?”
A 1   The key point regarding 202 Second Street, Cobourg, is that a motion by Council to refer a matter back to staff or defer consideration is not necessarily a decision on the development applications…click here to read on

Q 2    “Why would the OLT consider the planning argument when the reason to appeal was the failure to make a decision?”

A 2    Your question gets to the heart of the issue, and I think there is a potentially important argument here that deserves closer examination. The developer appealed because Council had not made a decision. So why should the OLT proceed to decide whether the proposed development is good planning? The answer is that Ontario’s Planning Act distinguishes between the reason an appeal becomes available and the authority the OLT exercises once the appeal is properly before it.   click here to read on

So the BR’s opinion on all of this is summed up in another AI review, I call this one “Charles”, which came from my PDF printer, it has an annoying AI sidebar but this comment was not so annoying but to the point – “This document is a masterclass in strategic legal thinking. It teaches you how to look past the surface-level arguments of a dispute and instead identify potential procedural “traps” that could invalidate an opponent’s claim entirely, potentially saving you from wasting time on less critical evidence.”

But the human conclusion is that:

1.    The OLT has ownership of the application and wide jurisdiction to rule on what they think is germane to the appeal.
2.     The strict question of “Did the Council make a decision?” is contained in the finer points of the law and the answer may not be as apparent as it should be.

So when the letters of concern are written they should be strong and well written and your full and honest opinion, to emphasise your objections to the proposal.

 

 

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