OMB Hearings in SF

Wilma Kenny | May 31, 2017

Last week, I spent one and a half days attending an OMB hearing in Sydenham which came down, in the end, to the question of whether or not South Frontenac Township Council has the authority to pass a by-law that could extinguish certain rights of “grandfathered” waterfront properties located within the currently required 30 metre setback from the high water mark.

The event involved a judge, two lawyers, two land use planners, two expert witnesses (re environmental issues), a legal assistant and a modest number of onlookers. There were two enormous tabbed binders full of plans, by-laws, notes and studies for each of the participants, and a variety of large-scale maps and charts. The sessions began at 9:30 and ran until shortly after 6:00 each day.

I took 25 pages of notes. From all this, what can one say?

The experience was, in many ways, fascinating. The speakers were all thoroughly prepared, well spoken and courteous, though sometimes a sharply ironic edge can be conveyed by the two simple words ‘my friend’. I enjoyed watching this real-life process of exploring all the nuances of wording and interpretation that can be read into the laws that both govern and protect citizens in a democracy.

To repeat what I think was said, or to try to explain the proceedings would only be an attempt to guess at the final decision and the rationale behind it. The judge’s closing comment was that “This has turned out to be a more complicated issue than I had anticipated.”

Earlier this month, a much longer, three-way OMB hearing took place in the Township over the issue of a proposed subdivision in Hartington; the developer appealed to the OMB about the County’s slowness in coming to a decision about his proposal, and the Hartington citizens group appealed the subdivision proposal as a third party. Uncertainty about maintaining the hamlet’s quantity and quality of drinking water is one of the residents’ primary issues.

Decisions on both these appeals will take time: the findings are not expected until some time in the fall.