Residents being put through the ringer
On Jan. 6, 2021, Charlottetown city council voted 6-2 in favour of rescinding a lot consolidation decision they had originally made on June 8, 2020. For the residents of Southview Estates to achieve this result, they endured a very long and hard-fought battle with city hall.
Because the bylaws surrounding lot consolidations do not require the city to inform anyone of their decision, it was only by chance that the neighbourhood had learned of council’s approval 24 hours before the deadline to submit a reconsideration request to the city and a formal appeal to the Island Regulatory Appeals Commission (IRAC).
While residents were able to scramble and prepare these appeal documents mere hours before the deadline, they then learned that for their request to be considered, they had to meet certain legal thresholds as laid out by the city. Simply put they had to show where mistakes were made in the process or, provide new, pertinent information that was not available to councillors at the time of the original decision.
Having supplied the city with an abundance of information not available at the time of the decision, having informed the city they had a member on their planning committee in a serious conflict-of-interest position and, highlighting the flaws that were contained in the traffic study paid for by the developer, the city made every effort possible to fight the residents’ ability to meet the legal threshold. Questions asked of city staff went unanswered. Inquiries posed to certain councillors met with no response. The chair of planning made public comments that amounted to fear mongering, which then led to great confusion and uncertainty for many residents.
Several months into the process council finally met to decide if they would reconsider their June 8 decision. While this meeting had been scheduled to take place in a facility that could accommodate up to 50 Southview residents, the circuit breaker restrictions hampered council to do so in that format. Even though these restrictions were to be lifted only a day or two following the scheduled public meeting, the chair of planning refused a motion to delay the meeting by a week so that residents could attend. Fortunately, and without the benefit of public input other than the four online presenters that evening, council did vote in favour of holding a reconsideration meeting on Jan. 6, 2021 – the outcome of which rescinded the original June 8 decision.
This has been a long, arduous, and expensive task simply to maintain the status quo. The disappointing aspect of all of this is that it’s far from over. The developer could, if they wished, appeal council’s decision to IRAC. The developer has already expressed publicly that they intend to go forward and build what they can under the term “as of right”. Naturally, the residents will oppose this through all means possible so in essence, the process will start all over again once a building/development permit has been approved by the city.
I point this all out to your readers as Charlottetown residents in various wards across the city have been subjected to these same labour intensive, confrontational challenges simply to maintain the nature and harmony of the neighbourhood they have chosen to live in. From my recollection, this has been the most tumultuous period of resident versus city hall interactions that we have seen for a very long time. A solution is required sooner rather than later that improves communication with residents in advance of major decisions. Furthermore, city hall should learn to operate under the premise of helping taxpayers rather than taking a win-at-all cost approach when defending poor decisions.