Council Preview
By John Swartz
Orillia council’s meeting Monday, November 3 starts at 1 p.m. because they have a public meeting on planning matters. A developer, Sullnet Holdings Inc., wants a zoning amendment for 18 stacked townhouses at 116 Bond Street. A second similar development from the same developer is also in the works.
Townhouses are not permitted at the moment. The developer is asking for relief from parking requirements (1.5 per unit to 1.25 per unit and 5 visitor parking spaces) and from setback limits, which staff say will be irrelevant when the second project commences.
Staff estimate development charges will be $29K per unit, or $520K for the entire development.
When council’s regular meeting begins, first up is a deputation Kyla Epstein, Krista Storey and Casey Spaan of Green Haven Shelter for Women. They are asking council for $100K. The shelter has 14 rooms for individuals/families and wants the extra money to fund a transitional bed. There is no definition of what a transitional bed is, and the one-year trial project for it is already 6 months old.
The shelter’s $1.5 million budget is only 60% subsidized by the province. They also found out during the ice storm they needed a backup generator which will cost $80K.
There are two items on the closed session agenda, both related to land issues. One is regarding a sale offer and the other is about letters of intent for City owned lands. No further information is provided about those.
When council returns to meet in public they have 4 items to discuss. Councillor Jay Fallis has been pushing for council to endorse asking the province to do what is it supposed to do, a 10th year review of greenbelt legislation. Time is running out on the clock. The motion also includes support to expand and strengthen greenbelt protections.
This is the third time it’s been on council’s agenda. This time a report from staff has been added. The conclusion staff has is since there are no rural lands in the City expansion of the greenbelt to City limits, or into the City, will not affect development. Staff point out there may be complications with land the City hopes to have added by boundary expansion. the bottom line is the City should not support having the province do what is in the legislation.
Councillor Lauer has a report, which if adopted, will change the 2026 budget allocation for Information Orillia. He is asking the requested amount of $75K be changed to $50K and the remaining $25K be given as interim funding from the tax rate stabilization reserve. This makes sense because if left as a regular line item of $75K it becomes part of the next annual budget, which if Info Orillia only needs extra money for one year, would mean skewing drafting the next and subsequent budgets.
Walk This Way, Sorry, That Way
Next is an item from engineering to replace the current policy on sidewalk replacement. Staff wants to remove the obligation to maintain sidewalks on some streets, which means if they deteriorate and won’t be fixed those sidewalks would be removed.
For a City so invested in traffic safety they installed speed cameras, taking out sidewalks seems counterproductive. Staff admit taking out sidewalks (only where both sides currently have sidewalks) would disrupt neighborhood connectivity and pedestrian routes and result in fragmented pedestrian infrastructure. It also would raise issues why one neighbourhood would lose sidewalks and another not. There is no mention of the effect on plowing sidewalks.
Council meetings are open to the public or can be watched on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
