Richmond Hill’s New official plan was recently endorsed despite concerns from local residents and councillors alike.
The new plan, which will govern growth and development in the town over the next 25 years, was endorsed in a close five-to-three vote, despite attempts to have the vote deferred until council returns from the summer break.
“There were a lot of questions that I felt weren’t answered,” said Vito Spatafora, regional councillor, of his motion to defer the vote. “We had no opportunity at council to really discuss the official plan.”
Spatafora, who said the plan was the most important piece of legislation for the town in the last nearly 30 years, described it as being “rushed through.” He expressed concerns with certain elements of it, including guidelines for intensification along the Yonge Street and Major Mackenzie Drive corridors and the inclusion of development guidelines for David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) lands.
“We had not had a formal discussion on that,” he said, regarding the DDO inclusion.
Coun. Nick Papa, however, said the attempt to have the motion deferred was “mostly for political reasons.”
“There has been three years of consultation with people,” Papa said. “We had enough time to study it, enough time to read it, understand it.”
Karen Cilevitz, DDO Defender and Ward 5 candidate, and other groups, including the Richmond Hill Naturalists, have worked to prevent development on the Metrus-owned site.
“As far as I am concerned, it is a public right that this property be protected against development,” Cilevitz said, adding that attempts to get provincial and federal heritage protection for the site continue.
“They have enshrined development rights on this property,” she said of the new plan. “And that is something that we are, by no means, finished fighting.”