An application to create a banquet facility/wedding venue has been denied unanimously by King Council. As I have not been supportive of the application when it was first presented at Council I am very pleased that Council’s position on the matter is so clear; this will surely be valuable at the OMB hearing beginning 11/27. Council’s unanimously approved also the recommendation to re-designate the lands from Prime Agricultural to Rural. I reluctantly accepted this as the re-designation has been done already by the Region and given the conditions of the land it is the only realistic, practical answer. And finally, Council unanimously approved the recommendation that a children’s camp be permitted provided that important conditions on hydrology and access are satisfactorily met. The Staff analysis and report on this very complex application is thorough; you can read it here.

There are many arguments to be made against the application. In truth I did not truly appreciate the most basic principle underlying the whole initiative until very recently. The proposed wedding venue is not a recreational activity; it is a commercial enterprise. As such, it is not a permitted use on the Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM). It is not the responsibility of King Township to make decisions on what is and is not permitted on the ORM. It is our responsibility to execute the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan and in that manner we can protect and ideally enhance the ORM.

It has been made very clear that the ORM is not just being protected by the municipality. Stewards of the Moraine, a local citizens group, has provided expertise by their contracting for research and peer reviews and sharing such to the municipality. (All information was provided to applicant too of course.)