After the previous Monday’s meeting failed to reach a decision on a “settlement agreement” for the proposed Century Condos, Council will be back in session tomorrow night at 5:30PM to decide if the slightly revised proposal is any better.

There has been some minor changes to the last offering but as per the Planning Department’s “Moving Forward” PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow night’s meeting… the “building form remains unchanged”.

In contrast to the previous PowerPoint, this one (embedded at the end of the post) is more toned down and to the point. It seems to hit a few different areas, but seems to also miss the mark on other Council and residents concerns.

Here are the notable changes…

  • From 90 units at last meeting to 87 units
  • No changes to form/massing of building
  • Parking spaces provided now 159, whereas 158 required, due to change in number of units and use of tandem parking spaces
  • 28 of the total spaces are for commercial purposes

The “Next Steps” Flowchart

Under the heading of “Next Steps” in the presentation there is a logic/flowchart that attempts to show how the application can proceed. Unfortunately while it may apply to development applications in general, in this particular case it misses the proverbial “elephant in the room”.

Can you spot what is missing?

If you guessed “the laneway legal issue”, you are correct!

As Councillor Sharpe rightfully pointed out in the last meeting, the laneway is the “bridge” that would make this development proposal possible. The flowchart in failing to address this pivotal matter oversimplifies what has become a complex issue.

As title of the laneway has yet to be decided by the Superior Court, as per the last memo from LPAT on the matter (link here), how that is decided, whether it’s for the Town, the developer or a third-party will vastly affect if and how the proposal can move forward to any “next steps”.

Most people would not be comfortable with signing any kind of legal agreement that at it’s core hinges around how a court will rule on a matter. Contingency and severability clauses aside, there are too many unforeseen ways that a legal agreement based on an undecided matter can go sideways.

All Members of Council in this regard should look at this no differently. Until the laneway matter has been decided by the court and any appeal timelines on that issue exhausted, it would be unwise to commit to any form of “settlement”.

With Town Hall still closed to the public, you can watch the open session segments of the meeting on Thursday night at 5:30PM at the Town’s livestream site at: https://vimeo.com/grimsbycouncilchambers

Or catch the simulcast on Facebook Live!

Here is the PowerPoint presentation from the Town:

C11_Master-Settlement-Presentation