At last Monday’s meeting of the Clarington Planning Committee Meeting, over 100 citizens were there to hear the staff report on the Minister’s letter to the Mayor.
In his letter, the Minister said, “The lands brought into the EP Zone in Clarington include lands that are identified by the province as Greenbelt and NHS as well as additional lands that the province has not required to be zoned EP.”
ANY DISCUSSION BY COUNCIL OF ZONING IN RURAL CLARINGTON AND THE MINISTER’S LETTER WAS SHUT DOWN.
At the October 22, 2019 meeting of Planning, a motion was passed to table the rural portion of the zoning by law amendments indefinitely. This meant that further work on by-law amendments would stop.
At Monday’s meeting, Mayor Foster wanted to put forward a motion to lift the motion off of the table. His rationale was to lift the motion so further work could be continued on the zoning of rural Clarington.
Consequently, his interpretation that all work and all related work was on hold resulted in not allowing discussion of the Minister’s letter or any other related matters even if they were on the meeting’s agenda as items 15.2 and 15.3.
If that was the case, then why over the past 4 months have the Council and staff been working on doing specific site visits and taken hours and hours of Council time on this matter of zoning in rural Clarington at both Council and Planning Committee meetings?
Why have Clarington staff continued to accept requests for free site visits, made numerous reports to Councillors on this matter and mapping, printed and distributed notices and sent out letters to land owners?
Why have the staff been consulting with various stakeholders and why did they hire a private environmental company to make a presentation to Councillors on environmental features?
Why have the public been able to make presentations at Planning Committee and Council meetings and why have Councillors been telling enquiring member’s of the public to meet with staff to discuss their concerns on this matter?
Four months of wasted time, effort and money.
If the tabling of the rural portion of zoning by-law amendments meant no discussion and no further work, why were the public led to believe that work and discussions about mapping errors, notification to land owners and site visits were allowed to continue?
Why were Councillors not able to discuss the Minister’s letter and the staff response to Council’s request, made on January 20th, for a report on the Minister’s letter and the additional lands included by the Municipality that were not required by the province to be identified as EP?
Is this acceptable?
Are you frustrated that 4 months have passed with no answers and no transparency or accountability from the Municipality in dealing with this matter?
This is the time for you to speak up.
Clarington Council must hear from you. Rezoning Clarington has made every effort on your behalf. Now we ask you to make your voice heard.
Make a request to speak at the next Council Meeting on Monday, March 2nd.
Your request must be made by Friday, Feb. 28th at 4 pm.
Contact the Clerk’s office at agreentree@clarington.net or at (905) 623-3379.