Blue Mountains council rejects rental housing project ... again

For the second time in two weeks, Town of the Blue Mountains council has rejected a developer’s request for help to speed up a proposed rental housing project.

At its recent meeting, in a 4-3 vote, council rejected a new motion to explore all planning process options available to move forward a proposal to build a significant rental housing project not far from the Village at Blue.

Councillors Paula Hope, Gail Ardiel, June Porter and Alex Maxwell combined to vote against the resolution that requested staff take a look at ways to speed up the process for the proposal.

At its committee of the whole meeting on Sept. 17, council had rejected a request from developer Paul Mondell to consider a minister’s zoning order (MZO) process for the rental housing project.

Mondell is proposing a large-scale rental project on a 24-acre property at Grey County Road 19 and Crosswinds Boulevard. The project would include one-, two- and three-bedroom rental units.

The request for the MZO came because the property is located in a secondary planning area, which generally wouldn’t allow zoning or official plan amendments to be considered because the land had been set aside to be examined in more detail at a later date.

At the Sept. 30 council meeting, Coun. Shawn McKinlay lifted the item from the consent agenda and brought a new resolution that directed staff to work closely with the developer and report back on all available opportunities for the project. McKinlay’s resolution did not mention an MZO.

“We’re not approving anything. We’re just trying to move forward. We have a housing crisis,” he said.

Mondell spoke at the meeting prior to McKinlay’s motion and urged council to consider looking at options to find traction for the project. At the Sept. 17 committee of the whole meeting, council’s resolution asked staff to work through the “traditional planning process” on the application.

However, Mondell said, because of the secondary plan issue, that direction was not possible.

“There is no traditional planning process available for this project,” said Mondell, who estimated that it might take more than 20 years for anything to happen with the property.

During the discussion, town planning staff confirmed it would be difficult to foresee the project making any progress based on the planning restrictions in place on the property.

Adam Smith, the town’s director of planning and development services, said it would be “very challenging” for staff to bring a report recommending the application move forward “based on the policy limitations on that site.”

Other members of council were not willing to change course on the matter.

“I can’t support this, they want to do this through an MZO,” said Ardiel.

“I can’t support this period,” said Maxwell.

“I would never support an MZO. I think this is risky,” said Hope.

Only Deputy Mayor Bordignon changed his mind on the matter. Bordignon, who had voted against the MZO request at committee of the whole, noted that a rejection of even considering options for the proposal meant “the door would be fully shut.”

The deputy mayor said because the proposal involved purpose-built rental housing, a stock that is in short supply in The Blue Mountains, he was willing to support the resolution to have a deeper look at the matter.

“I’d like to see what this could look like,” he said.