RDDS wins appeal Sutton Bylaws 254 and 256 nullified

Regroupement pour un Développement Durable à Sutton (RDDS) is in celebration mode these days. The Quebec Court of Appeal has overruled a decision by Superior Court Judge François Tôth in a suit the group filed against the Municipality of Sutton in September of 2015, calling for the cessation and nullification of bylaws 254 and 256.

The lawsuit was filed after citizens voiced opposition to the Town’s intention to adopt contentious residential and zoning bylaws during the summer of 2015.

According to RDDS, the bylaws, which contained close to 200 pages of amendments and modifications to existing measures, amounted to dramatic changes that should be done in the context of a revision of an urbanism plan.

Bylaws 254 and 256 were seen as a back-door attempt to ratify the urban plan without having to consult the entire town regarding dramatic changes.

The only recourse to oppose the bylaws was individual registers signed by citizens in or adjacent to the zones affected by specific measures in the bylaws, which meant a possible 30,000 different registers could have been opened.

After the town adopted the contentious bylaws in November of 2015, 50 different registers were opened, gathering enough signatures for referendums regarding 29 contested measures in the bylaws.

On January 5, 2017, Judge François Tôth rejected RDDS' request to nullify the bylaws, ruling that their formulation and adoption was done through legal means.

RDDS said the ruling favoured antidemocratic abuses and filed an appeal, insisting that the bylaws were tantamount to a modification of the urbanism plan, and should have waited until March of 2016 when the plan was scheduled to be revised.

They added that the adoption of the bylaws circumvented public consultation by requiring citizens to engage in a process of senseless complexity in order to voice their opposition.

The Quebec Court of Appeal agreed. “It’s a major decision,” commented RDDS Spokesperson Robert Benoit.

“It sends a strong message to other municipalities,” he said.

The bylaws are nullified, and the Town’s urbanism plan has reverted to what it was before the bylaws were adopted.

Sutton is responsible for the court costs, and based on the work put into the bylaws, as well as the cost of public notices and registers, Benoit estimated the three-and-a-half year battle, which citizens voiced strong opposition to from the beginning, likely cost the town close to $1 million.

There will, however be no satisfying ‘I told you so’ moment for RDDS. The municipal council that adopted the bylaws has since changed.

Town Manager at the time, Jeanfrançois d'amour, moved on to become Town Manager of Magog in October of 2016. In July of 2017, Sutton Urbanism Director Réal Girard followed suit, taking the job of Director of Planning and Development in Magog.