Sharing a planner with any municipality but North Huron was the request put to Huron County senior planner Scott Tousaw at the Jan. 19 Morris-Turnberry council meeting.
The request to Tousaw was made by Morris-Turnberry Mayor Dorothy Kelly, who told Tousaw the municipality decided it would prefer not to share a planner with North Huron after the recent Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing on the Willis farm property.
Kelly said the municipality would like to have its own planner since sharing planner Sandra Weber with North Huron seemed like a conflict of interest.
Kelly said Weber was wearing “two hats” in the hearing, although Tousaw said the planners work as a department. “We communicate and make decisions together. I wouldn’t expect different recommendations from another planner.”
Several questions were asked of Tousaw about the department’s recommendations at the OMB hearing and Coun. Paul Gowing noted the department was surprised at the ruling, which Tousaw said was correct.
Asked what the reasoning was for the department not backing Morris-Turnberry, Tousaw said the department planning system “is cautious” when there are objections to planning changes.
Gowing replied there had been pointed comments made by the OMB in its ruling and he hoped the planning department would take note of them.
Tousaw replied that every file was unique but that typically the OMB’s rulings were the same as what the department recommended. “Planning is not a science,” said Tousaw.
Coun. Jim Nelemans asked Tousaw why there were planning restrictions on grocery stores, which had allowed two companies to have a monopoly, while Gowing added the wording in the ruling was “no entitlement to market share,” and he hoped the planning department would be on the same page as the OMB.
In response to Kelly’s comment that the municipality would prefer not to share a planner with North Huron, Tousaw asked if it was the same with any abutting municipality and Kelly said it wasn’t.
Coun. Bill Thompson said the municipality funded the department and shouldn’t have to spend more money to fight against it, although Tousaw said with the planning system, it was bound to happen sometime.
Kelly noted the municipality enjoyed working with Weber and that she was excellent, but if it had to share a planner, it would prefer it to be with a municipality that it didn’t have so many issues with.
Tousaw said changing would be difficult since any changes would mean a domino effect throughout the county.
He added that confidentiality in the department was never broken about files between municipalities, but he would consider the request.
In other business, Morris-Turnberry will proceed with an environmental assessment on the Bluevale drainage project after accepting a cemetery investigation report from Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultants.
Morris-Turnberry roads department head Mike Thomas said the report didn’t indicate the presence of graves within the proposed construction area. Thomas added the report said there seemed to be sufficient space to install the storm drain outlet and the construction should be allowed to proceed.
Speaking from the gallery, Bluevale resident Terry Matz noted that many residents in the community were afraid of being unable to pay and asked that when council decided what the cost of the project would be, if it planned to have a meeting to ask residents what they would like to do.
Kelly said that was what council intended and that while it hoped to get a grant, there were doubts whether the federal government would be handing out more grants.
The council agreed that whether it federally or municipally funded, the project would have to move ahead and a motion was then passed to proceed with the $25,000 environmental assessment.