by Kate Daley
We’re pleased this morning to see a story in the The Record about the court case on the Region’s official plan. The enormous public interest in this case continues.
Unfortunately, justice moves slowly in our court system. As the story notes, it has been well over a year since the Region announced that it would seek a judicial review of the Ontario Municipal Board’s ruling against its Official Plan in Divisional Court. Indeed, it has been 16 months since the Province of Ontario took the rare step of joining with the Region to fight a decision of its own tribunal in court.
In today’s story, Regional Chair Ken Seiling notes that the Region is working to try to settle the dispute, but not much movement has been made:
“There have been discussions with some of the parties as to whether there’s ability to settle some of these things, but as of today there are no settlements and we’re still waiting to hear on the issues from the board,” Seiling said.
Further, he notes that
“Anybody’s preference always is if you can achieve a settlement without getting before the courts or another full hearing that would be preferable, but that takes everybody willing to come together,” he said.
For now, we wait for more news on this case. But we don’t have to wait to talk about broader issues of growth, urban sprawl, and liveable communities. Discussions on these topics continue, here and across the province. As the fall approaches and the municipal election gets into full swing, there’s lots to talk about.