In a Nov. 15 meeting, council reviewed the planning report regarding the extension for the draft plan of vacant land condominium from Drexler Construction Limited.
The Dowler Street development is proposed to include seven single detached residential lots accessed by a common road intersecting with Dowler and Gowan Streets. The development is also set to include an open space for a wetland and buffer area.
In Monday’s meeting, council received the planning department report and approved a two-year extension of the draft plan on the vacant land condominium.
Council also directed staff to provide the report to the County of Wellington to grant the extension from the date of passing.
The draft plan was first approved by the county in 2017. The current draft plan is set to expire after Feb. 1, 2022.
The report to council noted prior to the county considering the request, a resolution of support from the township is required as per the conditions of the draft plan approval.
“I’m on the assumption that nothing changes, the only change is the extension of time,” councillor Mark Bouwmeester said. “Based on that being the only change I’m fine with that.”
“I have a problem with this,” councillor Corey Woods said in contrast.
“We had an agreement in place for the hazard lands with the former owner of the property.”
The location of the proposed development, initially owner by Drexler Construction Limited, was sold to Acorn Developments and later sold back to Drexler, township clerk Amanda Knight explained.
As a result of the various land transfers, Knight said the township is currently working through some outstanding legal matters.
“I have a real problem giving them an extension if there’s a legal agreement in place and now that seems to be in jeopardy,’ Woods said, asking the issue to be deffered until the legal agreement could be figured out.
“My understanding is that when we realized that land transfer was at risk … there was a satisfaction with either an easement and/or land transfer,” Mayor Chris White explained.
“And I believe that there is some movement towards solving the problem,” he added, asking if it was still in the negotiation process.
CAO Ian Roger said the negotiations are still confidential, but confirmed they are progressing at this point.
“It was approved in the original draft plan conditions they have to satisfy the township, so all this is doing is adding two years of time to complete everything,” Roger explained.
“But they still have to satisfy the conditions set by the township.”
The report noted since the approval of the draft plan the applicant has been working to satisfy the draft plan conditions, which include 45 conditions in total.
The applicant noted there have been delays and disruptions in coordinating the project and site visits due to the pandemic and the two-year extension should provide sufficient time to fulfil the conditions of draft approval.
“This is just to keep the process going by giving them two years, it changes nothing in terms of the legal agreements or a satisfactory resolution to that problem,” White noted.
He continued, “It’s not perfect but at the end of the day if you didn’t give the extension then the whole process starts again and this whole thing falls apart probably.
“So we’re giving the extension but to (Woods’) point those things need to be resolved before they get the ability to move onto other steps.”
Council voted 4-1 in favour of the extension with councillor Corey Woods opposed.
