Successfully represented Save the Rouge Valley System Inc. during a twelve-month OMB hearing. The case was a victory for protection of the Oak Ridges Moraine, with the cancellation of a 5,000 home development on the Moraine and the enactment of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001 and Oak Ridges Moraine Protection Act, 2001.
All in Sprawl
Following this contentious three-month OMB hearing, awareness of the need for anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) grew into the current law, the Protection of Public Participation Act, 2014. We also drafted the forerunner to the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, 2008.
Successfully represented a residents’ association opposed to a 31-unit, low density, sub-division on the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal held: the proposed zoning by-law amendment and draft plan of subdivision do not maintain an ecological corridor connecting the MacMillan Estate Woodlot and Patterson Woodlot key natural heritage features and thereby do not protect natural heritage features and areas for the long term or restore ecological functions or the diversity and connectivity of natural features on the Moraine.
Successfully represented both PALS and Ms Grandoni in a thirteen-day OMB hearing challenging the City of Niagara Falls’ approval of a major urban boundary expansion onto prime agricultural land (suitable for grape, apple and pear production) adjacent to the Greenbelt. The OMB denied the application. Argued successfully against the City's subsequent Ontario Court of Justice judicial review application to overturn the OMB decision, with costs against the City.
Successfully represented the Stewards of the Moraine Inc., an association of local property owners, in its opposition to a planning application for a massive outdoor wedding/banquet facility in King Township in the protected “Countryside Area” of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan. The OMB agreed with the Stewards that the proposed wedding/banquet facility is not a recreational use and thus is not an appropriate development on the Oak Ridges Moraine. The application was denied.