At our December 16th Council meeting I made one of the tougher decisions I have made since being on Council: whether to refuse or to accept the revised application by King City Corporate Center (KCCC) for the prestige employment lands in King City at south east corner of Jane and King Road. After much deliberation and  listening to citizens both prior and during the meeting I decided to vote in favour of it. The vote passed 5:2 with Councillors Mortelliti and Grandilli opposing it. You can read the Staff report and the revised Official Plan Amendment here.

For me the decision was so difficult because I was dismayed and very uncomfortable with the implications of the process which had got us to this point. The process I am referring to is the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) mediation process in which we engaged with KCCC. The “rules” of that process are that it is non binding, without prejudice and confidential unless and until there is a settlement between the parties. Throughout the mediation process Council received updates on the process and gave direction on objectives; but as it was an OMB mediation process all that communication occurred in closed council sessions.

When I agreed to enter into remediation I did not think about the implications of concerned, engaged citizens not being aware of the process and not being able to provide input during the process. And clearly I had no idea that concerned, engaged citizens’ opportunity to provide input after reading  a long report would be over the second last weekend before Christmas. This discomfort for me, although very real, was not a basis for making a decision on the application.

What did drive my decision?

• First,there was my decision to support the mediation process. I accepted the advice from our Legal Staff that our refusal of the application in November 2012 was indeed open to appeal to OMB and that our interests would be best served with mediation as opposed to participating in an OMB hearing. Initially I had thought it was not within jurisdiction of OMB as I believed the application involved conversion of employment lands which is not allowed by the Planning Act. (I believe most of the public also thought this as a deputation was made in November 2012 by a reputable lawyer who reviewed the pertinent points of the Planning Act.) For me there is a persuasive argument that it was open to appeal. i) The King City Community Plan (KCCP) is not robust in this regard; it lacks specific prohibition of conversion. ii) York Region’s 2010 Official Plan allows as much as 15% commercial/retail in employment lands and that zoning this amount of land as commercial/retail is not a conversion.

• Then there was my decision to accept the revised application from KCCC which reflected the results of the OMB mediation process. I voted “yes” as I believe we have achieved significant positive outcomes which will benefit us over the long term as this site develops.
  

  The commercial/retail is limited to 40,000 sq ft. (Original application was for 156,000 sq.ft.) And very importantly we have very specific restrictions to prohibit a conversion of additional lands to commercial/retail later. The range of retail and services is restricted;and specifically a grocery store/supermarket is prohibited. (The latter was of concern given that we have approved construction of commercial/retail at King Road/Dufferin and a supermarket is included in that development.)

  The commercial/retail is not at the corner of Jane/King Rd. We still have the opportunity to have this land developed to the standard that we are seeking; we can still have our gateway. The commercial retail will be located on King Road across from our Museum. Given our strategic goal of the Museum becoming a “vibrant gathering place” I see this location as being appropriate.

  Building of the commercial/retail will be phased in; 1st phase will be built only after equal space has been built and occupied by employment uses.

  The current KCCP allows for institutional uses on this site and assisted living is an institutional use; the original and revised application includes 2 multi-storey buildings for assisted living. The revised application specifically restricts the location of these buildings to the south east corner of the site which is the best location for the long term given the planned development further south. (Other than the location of the buildings no other features (e.g. number of stories) are determined by this decision; reports and recommendations will be come in future to deal with this.)

Without question this Official Plan Amendment is not what I expected when I read the KCCP which includes “prestige employment lands” at Jane and King Road. And I know it is not what citizens were aspiring to when they worked so hard to create the KCCP in 1999. Having said that I do believe that we still have the opportunity to create something special at Jane and King Road as our employment lands.

Finally I would like to clarify that despite Council making a decision the matter is not finalized yet. There will be an OMB hearing in June.