OMB closes casino appeal file, cancels hearings
The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing over the casino is officially cancelled.
A three-week hearing was scheduled for City Hall, starting May 8 – but it’s cancelled. So is the OMB’s pre-hearing meeting, which was scheduled for March 17.
The file on the matter was closed by the OMB on Thursday.
It happened after the city reached a settlement agreement with the Downtown BIA and AON Inc., a downtown landlord.
The DBIA and AON were unhappy that the city had rezoned a property on Crawford Dr., in the city’s south end, for a casino.
The two organizations thought a casino belonged downtown, because a casino would bring crowds to the city’s core. Together, they appealed the city’s rezoning before the OMB.
But now the dispute has been settled.
Under the deal, the DBIA is receiving $150,000 annually from the city, for the next 20 years, for downtown promotion and security.
Allan Seabrooke, the city’s CAO, said Thursday the new zoning is in effect on the property on Crawford Dr.
He said the company that wants to build and operate the casino, Great Canadian Gaming Corp., can now bring a site plan application to City Hall.
But Chuck Keeling, a spokesman for Great Canadian Gaming, said on Thursday the company hasn’t determined when it might begin construction.
“Obviously, we’re very grateful we’ve gotten past that OMB process – now we’ve got certainty we can proceed,” he said.
They didn’t want to presume they rezoning decision would prevail, Keeling said – so they didn’t make any further plans.
“Now we can plan – with the confidence that it’s worth planning,” he said.
Great Canadian Gaming Corp. built a similar casino in Belleville, in eight months. It opened in January.
Sheila Nabigon-Howlett, the chairwoman of the citizens’ group No Casino Peterborough, said she was disappointed the hearing was cancelled.
Her group lacked the money to be a party to the appeal, so it took participant status instead (meaning the citizens could have weighed in, at the OMB hearing, without having to hire a lawyer to make the case).
She had hoped that even if the DBIA and AON settled with the city, there would still be a hearing so No Casino Peter borough members could be heard before the board. But that’s not going to happen.
“If there are no appellants, the file gets closed,” she said. “That’s really hard – and undemocratic.”
Nabigon-Howlett said Thursday she is writing a letter to the OMB to point out how this is unfair to her group.
No Casino Peter borough has argued that casino would bring social ills to the city, such as gambling addiction.
Meanwhile, it’s unclear exactly how the DBIA will use its settlement money.
On Thursday, DBIA chairman Dave Madill said the agreement was discussed at a board meeting Wednesday.
But Madill said there’s no decision yet on exactly how the DBIA will use its new funding from the city.