Letter to Residents - December 2006

We have just been passed a letter from the council, which all of you may not have seen, so we are re-publishing it here to inform you of some of the thoughts of the staff at council.

"December 1, 2006

Dear Resident

It was recently brought to our attention that a number of flyers have been posted on trees in the Creek Path Woods located in the Lakeshore Woods community stating that half of Creek Path Woods will be destroyed due to development. This is simply not the case. We would like to take this opportunity to correct the misinformation contained in this flyer.

By way of this letter, we will provide residents in the Lakeshore Woods Community with accurate information regarding the various development projects taking shape in the community and their status.

Due to the posting of the flyer, a number of residents have contacted the Planning Services Department to express their concerns regarding the destruction of the woodlot. Please be assured that the woodlot known as Creek Path Woods is an important part of the Town's open space and trail system network and is owned by the Town of Oakville. *The Town of Oakville will not be developing the Town-owned portion of the woodlot, nor will it be removing any trees.* Regular forestry maintenance will occur on a limited scale to remove hazardous trees that could potentially impact public use of the trail system.

Background:


In February of 2005, New Province Homes applied for an Official Plan Amendment (OPA), Rezoning and Removal of Holding Provision to allow for the development of nine single detached dwellings and two residential estate lots. The OPA sought to redesignate the subject property from Medium Density Residential to Residential Low Density and to change the
wording regarding tree preservation policies applicable to the site. The Rezoning sought a change from the existing R8 zone (Mixed Dwellings - Higher density) to the proposed R11- Mixed Dwellings, Low Density and R2 - Mixed Dwellings, Low Density.

The application was presented to the Planning and Development Council on February 27, 2006. The recommendation by the Planning Services Department was to deny the application as it represented a significant reduction in the approved density for the subject property. Furthermore, the proposed application was considered to undermine the tree preservation policies established for the subject property. The applicant requested that Council defer consideration of the application.


It was the applicant's hope that the application could be revised to staff's satisfaction allowing a positive recommendation to be brought before the Planning and Development Council. The applicant did not however amend the application and later withdrew the application in
August of 2006. The file was officially closed by the Planning Department shortly thereafter.


There are currently no active development applications for the subject property.

Development Parcel fronting onto Duskywing Way


A development parcel exists north of the Town-owned portion of the woodlot. In the original secondary plan for the Bronte Community District, this property was designated as Residential High Density. This designation was changed in 2001, through OPA 191, from Residential High Density to the current Residential Medium Density designation. This property is designated for the development of medium density residential uses. The current Official Plan policies and Zoning regulations applicable to this parcel allow for the development of an apartment
building or a seniors housing facility.


The Official Plan policies have a height limit of 4-storeys and contain tree preservation policies which call for the dedication of the remaining undeveloped portions of the subject property to the Town. The policies do not contemplate dedication of the entire area. The amount of undeveloped area of the property to be dedicated to the Town will depend on future development applications. The intent of the tree preservation policies is to create a compact form of development in order to provide a suitable transitional area between the developed land and the Town-owned portion of the woodlot.


The Planning Department anticipates future development applications for this property but is currently not aware of any proposals. Any development proposal which differs from what the current Official Plan and Zoning regulations allow for will require an application to amend
these policies and regulations. Such development proposals will require notification of area residents and public meetings will be held.

Residents are encouraged to participate in these meetings.

Should you require additional information, please contact David Capper,
Planning Services Department, 905-845-6601 ext. 3042 or email
dcapper@oakville.ca."

What's happening now?

As a result of the Community Information Meeting, residents' feedback is
being evaluated by Daniels Corp., and they are in the process of
revising their development concept accordingly. They have advised us
that they will have the new concept ready by approximately mid-April,
and will contact us to set up a preliminary presentation at that time

Following the Community Information Meeting, we requested a follow-up session which was attended by the newsletter committee, Town Councillors Ralph Robinson and Alan Johnston, two members of the Planning Department, Barbara Koopmans, (Manager of Current Planning and Urban Design for South Oakville) and Jane Clohecy, (Commissioner of Planning, Development & Building Services) and two concerned residents (Chris and Marion Duff).

At this meeting it was decided that all questions received by the Town,
from the residents and our committee, would be addressed, in writing, by
Barbara Koopmans in a "response document". This document, which will
provide answers to all questions raised and advise of the next step
required by Daniels Corporation, will be posted on the website as soon
as we receive it. Once this document is reviewed, we can proceed
constructively.

*LAKESHORE WOODS RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION (LSW-RA)*

Due to the passionate interest of the community, and of the many offers
we received from residents wishing to help in some way, we have
formulated the Lakeshore Woods Residents Association (LSW-RA).

The purpose of the Association is to provide a formal arena for
residents to discuss, vote and act upon neighbourhood issues. The
Association is officially recognized by the Town of Oakville, and acts
as the interface between our local community and the Town Council.

To be viable, the LWRA needs members. In a nutshell, once a group of
residents sign up to become members, we will call a meeting to vote in
an Executive Committee (the leadership). This Executive Committee will
hold meetings with residents and register the LSW-RA as non-profit
association. Minutes of meetings will be available to all members.

The Bronte District Advisory Association is an umbrella organization
whose mandate is to support local community issues in the Bronte area,
and act as the interface between the Community and the Town Council. We
met with them recently (courtesy of Sundeep Khosla). As they are only an
advisory group, with no mandate to comment on individual plans, it
remains to be seen how they might be able to help us with our current
"wooded lot" issue.

*PEEL NATURALIST SOCIETY*:

Residents Maria and Michelle are currently researching this avenue with
the idea that the wooded lot may qualify as "protected lands" and
therefore subject to a moratorium on development. Outcome of this
research will be posted on the website.

*VOLUNTEERS:*

Tell us what you can do to help!! Particularly at this time if you have
Legal or Financial expertise, please notify us via the website.
(http://www.lsw-ra.org)

Daniels Development in Lake shore woods – An approach Strategy (re-post)

Editors Note:
This is a re-post of the views of one of the Lake shore woods
residents. In an attempt to show no bias, we decided that it is fair to
re-post all views that show positive options that other residents might
like to consider. This post is well worth reading. It was posted only
2 days after the initial informal meeting with Daniels at Walton Church,
and is very intransigent to start with, but some excellent points are
made throughout. Readers of this post may notice some slight
differences from the original. I took it upon myself to correct some
typos and grammar errors. I hope Dorin Stanciu, the original author will
accept my editorial license in this matter.

"First of all, the very title of this paper contains an affirmation.
That it's going to be a confrontation. Make no mistake – it's going to
be one, and it's going to be tough, since millions of dollars in short
term and more in long term earnings are involved.

Also rest assured that our opposing party has all the advantages in this
confrontation.

Daniels has experience in such confrontations, can move faster than us
in both decision making and action taking, can mobilize more resources
in shorter time, has a tempting proposition for our Town Hall and the
list of their advantages can continue.

This is why we have to recognize our weaknesses and to have a systematic
approach to compensate for those weaknesses.

*Any good strategy starts by _defining success_.*

What can we call success in this confrontation?

What do we hope to achieve?

Therefore, what is the mandate we give to the Committee of the Lake
shore woods Residents' Association?

My suggestion for definition of success would be:

1. To prevent the condominium(s) construction in Lake shore woods - for
good, not temporarily.

If this proves to be not achievable, what would be a lesser target
acceptable?

2. To determine the construction of the smallest number of units
possible in on the land owned by Daniels.

In order to preserve this second option, we have to keep permanently an
open door for discussions with Daniels. They won't build fewer units
just because they're nice guys, but we need to be able to bring them to
the table when we want to bring forth an issue.

TO DO:

MAKE A POLL TO HAVE ALL RESIDENTS PARTICIPATING IN DEFINING SUCCESS/GOAL
IN THIS ENDEAVOUR. (URGENT)

Regardless of the goal set and strategy and tactics employed, two things
remain constant:

1. We'll have to bring the town hall on our side.

2. We'll have to mobilize the whole community.

These are primary objectives. No matter what we decide to do to achieve
our goal, we must have the mayor and the council on our side and we must
have the whole community involved.

As far as the town hall is concerned, we must show them how much they
have to loose if they are not one hundred per cent on our side.

- We'll get to vote in the local elections prior to the new
residents in the condo(s) moving in… which may change dramatically the
components of the council and the mayor taking advantage of an eventual
Daniels' victory

- We pay taxes now, the future residents don't pay taxes yet,
hence…

- They represent us, who elected them and pay their salaries,
not the future residents, or the developer

TO DO:

APPOINT A SMALL GROUP TO WORD THE DRAFT OF THE LETTER, WHICH WILL BE
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE AND DISSEMINATED TO THE RESIDENTS TO SIGN AND
MAIL TO THE COUNCIL AND MAYOR. (URGENT).

TO DO:

APPOINT A SMALL GROUP TO BE THE PERMANENT LIAISON OF THE COMMITTEE WITH
THE TOWN HALL AND DEFINE THEYS DUTUIES. (URGENT).

* *

The next step would be the assessment of present situation:

- The land is zoned "medium density"

- Daniels owns the land

- Daniels plans to build 100 units on the land

- The perspective of taxing 100 more properties on a small
piece of land is a stimulant for the Town Hall to help Daniels rather
than us

- Daniels did not file yet an application with the Town Hall

- Lake shore woods residents formed an association to fight
Daniels plans

- The residents' association exists only on paper and it does
not have any resources yet

- Time works against Lake shore woods association and for Daniels

Now it's time to formulate the strategy. How are we going to achieve the
above stated goal of preventing the construction of condominium(s) in
Lake shore woods?

First answer was suggested by one of the initiators of this project:

- Buy the land back from Daniels.

We'll see later on what are we going to do with the land. However,
that's something we'll have to figure out quickly, because the intended
use will play a role in the tactics employed.

Each scenario retained by the Committee will be subject for a detailed
plan of action elaborated, discussed and approved in advance.

TO DO:

MAKE A POLL TO CONCENTRATE COMMUNITY'S IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO USE THE LAND
AND APPOINT A GROUP TO DRAFT A PROJECT FOR THIS EVENTUAL RESULT
(COMMUNITY GETS THE LAND).

TOWN HALL MUST BE ATTRACTED IN THE EVENTUAL PROJECT. IF THEY CAN'T HAVE
THE MONEY, AT LEAST THEY CAN HAVE SOME GLORY.

However, we're still looking for answers here, and I suggest we initiate
a poll on the community forum (as soon as the forum achieves
representative stature) in order to decide what would be the course of
action in order to prevent the destruction of the woods.

TO DO:

INITIATE POLL TO DECIDE THE COURSE OF ACTION IN ACHIEVING SUCCESS
("SUCCESS", AS DIFINED BY THE OTHER POLL ABOVE).

THE SUGGESTIONS WILL BE ASSESSED BY THE COMMITTEE AND FEASIBLE SCENARIOS
WILL BE SELECTED FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.

Whatever choice we make, are we going to be aggressive? My answer would
be "NO!" You can't be aggressive with somebody who can outspend you, and
generally speaking, out-anything you in this confrontation.

We must be very tactical.

Whatever choice we make, we'll need volunteers.

In this respect, I suggest we form a small group in charge with
volunteers. This group will have to maintain records of residents who
would volunteer, what would they volunteer for, when and how much time
can they volunteer, how can they be contacted, how much notice do they
need etc….

The Committee will have to keep track of all these small groups
mentioned here (groups of two- three people) and to maintain centralized
records of all the information these groups gather.

Whatever choice we make, we'll need project managers to work with the
volunteers. We'll need another small group to centralize information
about what capabilities do we have in the community in terms of project
management. Who has project management experience; in what field and to
what extent can they engage in managing projects for the community, in
order to concentrate resources, rise awareness, raise funds etc.

Among many other, time is one scarce resource for our community.

I'll recognize that I'll put an end here to my first intervention on
strategy issues.

As I'll find the time, and as you'll respond, I'll elaborate further soon.

Best Regards,

Dorin Stanciu"

The original post can be found here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LakeshoreWoods/message/8

Editors sub-note:
I personally believe that we can get through this development as a
community by negotiation, and sensible use of the bye-laws and
enactments already in place, and to a greater extent the good will of
the Daniels corporation. Their Vice President Naill Haggart did state,
to over 100 of our fellow residents, that nothing was written in stone,
and that as a company they did want to work with us and the council on
finding an acceptable solution

Multiple sites for one problem

This shows the level of feeling for the development proposals at Creek
Path Woodlot in the Lake shore woods community. Another concerned
resident has started a blog site on Yahoo to also discuss feelings with
the community. For further information you can find this site at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LakeshoreWoods/

We will be monitoring this site, and re-posting any relevant posts to
the Official Lake shore Woods residents association site at

http://www.lsw-ra.org, so that all the information that is available to
and from the two sites can be seen without constantly flitting between
the sites.

We ask that all residents who are interested in having their views heard
sign up to the sites, as there are going to be times when information
may not have propagated across.

I try to keep the Lake shore Woods residents' site updated each day, so
all information that may be relevant to your views are welcome. This
site is designed for you all, so please use it. Too often complaints
are made after development has been approved, what we want are
_*positive*_ suggestions _*now*_ that we can place in front of the
planners and developers. If we can all work together for an agreeable
outcome, it is better than arguing and getting nothing.

Remember it is far better to try and fail, than not try at all. But it
is even better to try a little bit harder and succeed.

Regards

Len Inkster (li@ecssc.com)

Low cost housing development in Lakeshore Woods

Did you know that statistics have shown that low-cost housing
development reduces the values of houses around it?

Did you also know that this value reduction has a ripple effect outwards
from the development that can extend across whole sub-divisions?

Did you know that major arterial roads such as Great Lakes Boulevard off
no barrier to this ripple effect?

The Daniels Corporation are proposing just such a development right in
the middle of the Lakeshore Woods community. What can we do to persuade
them otherwise?

We can only stop the development completely by find some endangered
species of plant, moss or lichen growing in the woodlot, or proving that
it is a natural wetland, so this is unlikely.

We can however use the terms and the spirit in the Official Plan for
Oakville to persuade Daniels to propose a more aesthetically pleasing,
higher value, marginally larger medium density option to our Council
that they can approve under the terms of the official Plan.

Daniels has stated in informal meetings with the residents that they are
sympathetic to our worries. Let's put them to the test.

Daniels, if you really want us to love where we live, don't push for the
highest density under the rules, and produce the largest number of
cheaper properties, opt for a more pleasing, more environmentally and
community friendly development that produces a higher value, better
quality product. A product that you, the residents of Lakeshore woods
and Oakville in general can stand up and show the rest of the province
what can be done by negotiation rather than greed and meaningless public
relations exercises.

BDAC Meeting 15th March

I won't bore you with all the procedural stuff that took up the majority
of last nights meeting of the Bronte District Advisory Committee.

There were a couple of bits of interesting tattle-tale though, there was
some disagreement between Councilor Ralph Robinson and the long term
planning manager about the ability of this committee to discuss and
comment on individual planning specifics. ex-Councillor Mike Lansdowne
stepped in as a member of the public watching to help the committee try
to clarify the position. The position was not clarified, and minutes
from council meetings have been requested to try to identify the bounds
of the mandate of the committee.

The English translation of this is that at present, this committee has
no oversight on individual plans brought before council, even though
members of the committee believe the decision was made some 3 years ago
to the contrary. Which for us means that in respect to the woodlot
development, they are pretty hamstrung, and will be ineffective as a
body to assist us. Individually I believe there were many sympathisers
with our cause, but until clarification can be gained from the staff in
the council who hold the minutes of the meetings (presumably the town
Clerk), as a committee they have no impact. Unless.......

I understood from what I gleaned at the meeting was that one of the
mandates of the committee is to advise council on matters of policy.
Therefore I believe that if it can be shown that any specific
development goes against any policies accepted, and passed by the Town
Council (such as the official plan and all it's component parts) then
the committee is mandated to advise the council on these policies, and
thereby get around this blockage. Details of any inconsistencies need
to be sent to the committee at least two weeks prior to the next
meeting, these meetings are held at the town hall on the third Thursday
of every month.

Another interesting point is that the next planning & development
meeting was given as April 11th at 7p.m. Actually, if you check on the
Council website (http://www.oakville.ca/pdca07mar.htm) the next meeting
for planning approval is to take place on March 19th.

This meeting affect the lakeshore woods development as it is to discuss
the approval of the 162 house development just north of Shell Park, and
the spending of $1,350,000 of taxpayers money by the housing developer
of giving us some soccer pitches. Interestingly expensive grass and
fencing there I feel.

We have a contact on the committee who has been given the remit to be
the liaison point with local associations and groups who might have a
feed into this meeting. He is Sundeep Khosla

Anyway the last point on last nights meeting was that Sundeep presented
the Lakeshore Woods Newsletter that was accepted by the meeting as an
information item. He was also supposed to present the "Proposed
Townhouse Complex - Lakeshore Woods" as an information item, but
actually didn't have any information, and members of the public were
barred from speaking on information items by a second hand edict from
the Town Clerk which seemed to go against a point in the Rules for
Procedure for Committee which were again presented to this committee by
the same member of staff who passed on the edict. Go Figure!

Ensure you and your views are represented!

"If a person or public body that files an appeal of a decision of the Town of Oakville in respect of a proposed Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, and/or Plan of Subdivision or Condominium, does not make oral submissions at a public meeting or make written submissions to the Town of Oakville before the proposed Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law amendment, and/or Plan of Subdivision or Condominium is adopted or refused, then the Ontario Municipal Board may dismiss all or part of the appeal."

This is a statement inside one of the procedural clauses that makes up the rules which bind the town council of Oakville.

The translation of this is that in order to ensure that you and your views are heard, and the Councils views if it deems to adopt those views, are not rejected out of hand by the Ontario Municipal Board, it is imperative that you put your views in writing, and present them, or have someone present them on your behalf, either verbally at, or in writing BEFORE (or preferably both) any planning decisions are made.

When making submissions before a meeting these submissions have to be in the hands of the town Clerk before 12 noon on the day of the meeting, which may mean 12 noon on the previous calendar day, so better late than never doesn't hold water here.

The procedural document itself is quite an eye opener, if you can stay up long enough to read it, and understand the terminology.

One good word is delegation. Now when I was at school delegation was the transfer (usually of your own) authority and responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities, or put bluntly getting someone else to do your work for you whilst you still carry the can for anything
that goes wrong. Here in the procedural rules for council it takes on the meaning delegate, which again from my long and distant school English taught me was an individual, or a member of a larger group who represents that group. OK enough of the English, where is this leading?

At any planning meeting that is open to the public, and individual (delegate) can be a delegation, and as such and I quote "Unless otherwise authorized by resolution, a delegation shall be permitted to speak for a maximum of ten minutes, excluding replies to questions from the Members. A delegation may be permitted to speak as an individual as well as on behalf of a duly registered residents' group or association. Where an individual is speaking as the sole
representative of a residents group or association, that is duly registered with the Town, such person shall be permitted to speak for up to a maximum of twenty minutes with permission of Council by a majority vote"

Now the interesting thing here is, the terms "as well as", which I italicised, comes into play. As a duly formed residents association, which has been registered with the town, and committee member of the Lakeshore Woods Residents Association (LSW-RA) effectively has 20
minutes of speaking time if they speak on their own behalf and on behalf of the LSW-RA. So the LSW-RA could get an extra 20 minutes of air time (10 minutes at least) in order to focus all the points into a summation that hits home.

This is a major reason for starting a Residents association, as I am sure that at each public meeting held by the council many of the residents in the community will want to voice their opinions on many topics that come up. The LSW-RA that the residents of Lakeshore Woods
can be notified that issues, affecting them, are coming up for meeting.
We are also a central point for you to put your views to well before the meeting, and can act as a sounding board to ensure that you view, when you present it comes across focussed on the issue at hand, and not off topic, which wastes your valuable allotted time in the meeting.

What it also allows us to do is to gather up all the points of view, arguments, statistics, and formulate them into a highly focussed document and presentation to lay before the meetings as representatives on the communities behalf.

What is important to one resident, may not be on the top priority list of another's, and by engaging with the LSW-RA well before the meeting, we can ensure that where views may have some conflicting overlap, everyone can go into the meeting knowing that as much has been done to stop arguments between the residents taking up time, and the developers and planners making a decision that no-one wants.

I would imagine everyone has heard the saying "Divide and Conquer", nowhere is it more true than in the world of politics, and believe it or not, development planning is about politics.

Lester B. Pearson was once attributed to having said "Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects"
in all matters pertaining to the development of the Lakeshore Woods community, lets use the blunt objects that Oakville, the OMB, the Province and the Federal Government have given us skillfully for the benefit of our community, the environment, and the greater good of our children and children's children.

Daniels to build

Over 100 residents attended the impromptu meeting called by the Daniels
Corporation to discuss their ideas for the development of the Creek
Path Woodlot inside of the Lakeshore Woods Community.

Watch this space for updates on this development.