With the announcement that Marianneville Developments has triggered an appeal to the OMB prior to the Town’s decision on their development proposal, the ball is now rolling in our fight against this unnecessary disruption to our community.  Given the urgency of what’s to come, we’ve decided to convene a brief information-sharing session with all Glenway residents to make sure you’re in the loop with the latest news.

For your convenience, we will be hosting 2 information sessions on: Date: MONDAY MAY 13, 2013.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ATTEND THE SESSION MOST CONVENIENT FOR YOU.

Location: Ray Twinney Lounge 1
Session 1:   6:15pm to 7:00pm
Session 2:   7:30pm to 8:15pm

AGENDA 
• How did we get to this point so quickly?
• Status of the Town’s process (planning assessment and evaluation; Council vote) and timelines
• Our past & planned next steps to express our expectations of the Town
• Update on the GPA’s strategy and actions
• Fundraising plans for 2013
• Q&A

 We hope to see you all there!

For those of you that have already donated to our Defence fund we thank you. For those who
have pledged or wish to make a donation you can contact us at contact@preserveglenway.ca
or go online to our website www.preserveglenway.ca and click on “Donate Now”.

We cannot provide the best defence possible without legal and planning expertise. After an
initial swell of pledges we have seen the pace drop off. We have heard that many of you were
waiting until the developer filed their appeal to the OMB prior to sending in your generous
donation. Clearly that time is now upon us! We need more resources in order to build our
case.is now!

Help us preserve and protect the open green space and values we all enjoy in the
Glenway community.

April 19, 2013

To:  Newmarket Council

Re:  Support for Councillor Twinneyʼs Resolution supporting the intent behind
Bill 41

On behalf of the Glenway community, we would like to express our appreciation for
your support of MPP Frank  Kleesʼ Bill 41 which passed second reading yesterday
and will go on to committee for further discussion and refinement.

We felt the discussion at Council accurately summarised our view of this bill in that it
represents an opportunity to raise the level of discussion and engagement around
the very important topic about flaws in land use planning that negatively affect
municipal councils and their constituents.

At the same time, while we do not find the Bill without flaws, we, as you after your
action,  support the intent behind what is trying to be achieved with it.  There are
possibly other approaches to take to achieve some positive change regarding the
role of the OMB and the wording of the Places to Grow Act, but we have already
heard years of back and forth around these very issues without seeing any concrete
action until this Bill came forward.  Given the urgency of the situation in Newmarket
and similar growing concern in other growth targeted communities, we feel the need
to show leadership and throw our support behind such an initiative without having all
the fine details sorted out, and at this point without detailed input from the Townʼs
Planning group.

As you are aware, the Glenway Preservation Association has written to the mayors
in Ontario (specifically targeted in the Places to Grow as intensification centres), the
Premier, and the Ministers of Municipal Affairs and Housing,  Infrastructure and
Finance, to further enlist their openness to the intent behind this Bill and secure their
support to find an all party solution which will meet the needs of so many residents
of this province who are being challenged by the way that some growth and
development is unfolding.

We believe that while property owners have the right to develop their property within
sound planning principles, we do not believe that property owners should be able to
exploit the Places to Grow Act objectives by creating intensification projects
inconsistent with community interests, needs and vision.

As we all now must prepare for the significant OMB challenge that lies ahead on this
Glenway file, we thank you again for your on-going support and look forward to
working collaboratively together to achieve a successful outcome which will involve
    sparing community from unnecessary development and maintaining the open green
space which the Town will so desperately need and value as Newmarket continues
its dramatic growth in the coming years.

Sincerely,

Christina Bisanz
Chairperson, GPA

We expected more from both the Town to hold Marianneville more accountable during the 90 day period following January 7th’s statutory public meeting and Marianneville to inform the residents of Glenway specific answers to specific questions that were asked.

We will be having a meeting with the Town planners this coming week (postponed from last week) and will give you all an update then.

Private Members Bill 41 – great in principle and needs our support, BUT…

Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees will be presenting a second reading of Private Members Bill 41 this Thursday afternoon April 18th.  This is an important Bill for many reasons and we should all support it fully.  It has growing support within municipalities including Mississauga, Toronto, Oakville, Grimsby and our own Town of Newmarket council as Monday night.

Unfortunately, seeing Bill 41 passed is likely a longshot.  First,  Private Members Bills rarely survive the legislative process to become law.   Bills introduced by the ruling party are typically the only Bills that make it into legislation.   Secondly, even if the Bill is winding its way successfully through the approval process, if an election were called before it receives approval it effectively dies on the table.

Regardless of the success or failure of Bill 41 it is likely that Glenway’s development application is moving at a pace that will put it in front of the OMB before we could benefit from it.

This is why you need to continue this fight against the development proposal and not rely too much heavily on this Bill solving all our problems.  The best way you can support the opposition to development is strongly support the Glenway Preservation Association Defence Fund to make our collective voice heard at the OMB in a way that supports our interests and supplements the Town of Newmarket’s own defence of their Official Plan.

For those of you that have already donated to our Defence fund we thank you. For those who have pledged or wish to make a donation you can contact us at contact@preserveglenway.ca or here at our website www.preserveglenway.ca and click on “Donate Now”.

We cannot provide the best defence possible without legal and planning expertise.  After an initial swell of pledges we have seen the pace drop off.  We have heard that many of you were waiting until the developer filed their appeal to the OMB prior to sending in your generous donation.   Clearly that time is now upon us!  We need more resources in order to build our case.is now!

Help us preserve and protect the open green space and values we all enjoy in the Glenway community.

We will have more information posted here and on our Facebook page (  www.facebook.com/preserveglenway ) tomorrow and over this week.

We urge everyone to have their voice heard.  If you have not yet done so, sign the petition and get it to our MPP, Frank Klees.

http://www.frank-klees.on.ca/CurrentIssues/documents/PetitionrePreservingExistingCommunitiesActrv.pdf

Come out to the debate at Queen’s Park on the 18th of April (please contact Frank Klees office to arrange:

14845 Yonge St Suite 201     Aurora ON L4G 6H8              Tel: 905-750-0019       or       1-800-211-1881

email  fklees@frank-klees.on.ca

Continue speaking to your Ward Councillor, Chris Emanuel, and the Mayor’s office.

The legal fight has begun.  If you have not already done so, get your $250 contribution to the GPA.

Its on!                          We can win!

 To:  All Mayors in Ontario                                                                                                        April 5, 2013

cc:  Ontario MPP’s

 Re:  CONCERNS ABOUT MANAGING OUR COMMUNITIES’ GROWTH PLANS  

Dear Mayor,

You may not know of the Glenway Preservation Association (GPA), a community-based organization representing thousands of residents in Newmarket, Ontario.  You will, however, be aware of the plight of many communities throughout Ontario with local municipalities whose ability to control their destiny is being severely undermined by unnecessary and unwanted development pressures.  We are writing to enlist your support in changing the course of growth  for its own sake, in favour of sound, community- and environmentally-friendly planning decisions.

The Town of Newmarket is one of 25 municipalities identified in the province’s Places to Grow strategy as an intensification corridor to accommodate increased residential and industrial growth by 2031.  While the Places to Grow strategy was designed to eliminate urban sprawl through planned development strategies, an unintended consequence is in fact causing significant distress within communities.  This is the situation that is occurring when municipalities, who have sound plans to meet their growth targets in ways that also address community needs, are being challenged by developers who are able to override municipal Official Plans by leveraging the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to counter the municipal council decisions, often using the growth targets to validate their claims.  This has a significant consequence for municipalities who are being robbed of their ability to manage their own growth plans without having to spend significant tax dollars to defend their community’s interests at the OMB.

The Town of Newmarket faces just such a situation.  Recently, the Glenway golf course, one of the Town’s last remaining open green spaces, as it is designated in our approved Official Plan, was purchased by Marianneville Developments.  Marianneville has submitted an application to amend the Official Plan, and turn this precious resource into a development of over 700 housing units.  The developer is justifying the development on the grounds that it will support the growth targets set for the Town of Newmarket. In actual fact, other planned development—supported by the Official Plan— will already more than accommodate our growth requirements.

Anticipating that a negative response from the Town will undoubtedly lead to a costly challenge at the OMB, our municipality is gearing up to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to defend its own Official Plan.  In addition, the GPA has been building its own legal defense fund, in order to ensure that the community has a voice in the OMB decision-making process.

We believe that this dynamic is playing itself out across the province in similar growth targeted communities.  While property owners have the right to develop their property within sound planning principles, we do not believe that property owners should be able to exploit the Places to Grow Act objectives by creating intensification projects inconsistent with community interests and needs.

There is a growing body of evidence to support the position that municipalities and communities are no longer willing to allow their interests to be overridden by developers who use their “deep pockets” and resources to appeal to an OMB that applies insufficient weight to community interests in its decision-making.

Recently, Frank Klees, MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, introduced The Preserving Existing Communities Act (Bill 41), which would amend the Places to Grow Act  ( Places to grow Act: https://www.placestogrow.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=9),       to address this inequity.  The GPA supports the principle of Bill 41, and its objective to empower municipal councils to make the final decision about what their communities grow like, while also ensuring appropriate accountability of municipal Councils to their electorate for the decisions they make.  Further information on Bill 41 along with a petition of support is attached here.    http://www.frank-klees.on.ca/CurrentIssues/PMB_PreservingExistingCommunitiesAct.htm   

Exisitng greenspace for wildlife and healthy local ecosystems, for our community and our children

If you support your municipality’s right to maintain and uphold the integrity of your Official  Plan and your community’s interest against unwanted and unnecessary development, we encourage you to support The Preserving Existing Communities Act within your own municipal council, and with your provincial elected officials.  Feel free to invite your residents to submit their signed petition directly to the office of their MPP.  We welcome your response. Together we can make a difference in reclaiming control over the process of how we grow and evolve our own communities.

Sincerely,

 Christina Bisanz Chairperson, GPA  

The Glenway Preservation Association’s Response to the Proposed

“Preserving Existing Communities” Act

March 21, 2013

The Private Member’s Bill “Preserving Existing Communities Act” introduced by Mr. Klees, MPP today, highlights the difficult situation that identified Urban Growth Centres face as intensification projects start to take root, especially if municipalities find themselves trying to defend their Official Plans against unwanted and unnecessary development. “Having to fight against powerful developers whose finances and clout far exceed the limited resources of municipal budgets demonstrates the real risk that municipal planning is simply a worthless taxpayer-funded exercise with no leverage to protect existing communities and their residents’ vision for the future of their community and neighbourhoods,” says Christina Bisanz, Chairperson of the Glenway Preservation Association (GPA). Homeowners are also denied the opportunity to experience appreciation in the value of their homes.

The GPA, a not-for-profit organization formed to serve as the voice of residents in the Glenway community is well aware of the context in which the province’s “Places to Grow” legislation came into being (in 2005), and of its intent to control growth and eliminate the so-called “urban sprawl” that was quickly eating up lands in the GTA without sound planning principles. Dave Sovran, vice-chair of the group notes that “as an organization, we support planned growth in Newmarket as being part of a healthy and responsible approach to managing the evolution of our Town. In fact, planned, strategic growth led to the original creation of the wonderful neighbourhood we live in today!”

The GPA believes that the Town of Newmarket’s Council and planners have worked carefully to embrace and conform to provincially legislated growth plans. The Town invested significant time, resources and public consultation to create its own Official Plan in 2006, which subsequently underwent review and approval by the Region in May 2010.

“We also believe that Newmarket, after careful study and projections, is readily on track to meet its planned intensification targets that were established for each urban growth centre identified in the Places to Grow strategy,” says Ms. Bisanz. “In fact, at this point we are already on a pace to easily achieve and exceed our 2031 intensification growth targets many years ahead of schedule despite the fact that our Town has clear land supply constraints”, she added.

 “It is a fact, then that not only is any proposed development of the Glenway neighbourhood unnecessary to meet our targets, it is also completely contrary to the Town’s Official Plan and its citizens’ vision for the future of this Town”, said Mr. Sovran. The Glenway Estates development proposal put forward by Marianneville Homes is therefore unnecessary for growth targets and is a set-back to the long-term vision and future potential of the quality of our Town by removing precious green space and disturbing a long-established neighbourhood.

“Residents in Newmarket rightfully expect that Newmarket’s planning efforts, which meet all levels of Regional and Provincial standards, be respected. Specifically, we expect that the Glenway neighbourhood will not be subject to unnecessary, unplanned infill development. We have the right to ensure that the values that brought us to become homeowners in Glenway and residents of Newmarket, be protected and that our community open green space be preserved,” said Ms. Bisanz.

The GPA appreciates the intent of this Private Member’s Bill to raise critical awareness to the situation which we and many other Ontario neighbourhoods are facing, regardless of whether they are included in the provincial growth target plans. This is a time for elected officials at all levels of government to fine-tune the approach to municipal development in this province in a way which still maintains the positive intent behind the Places to Grow Act, and related legislation.

In conclusion, the GPA calls for an all-party solution to be developed to protect communities across this province that is being threatened by rapid, unplanned and unjustifiable development. We further call for amendments to an OMB process which can simply overrule municipal planning decisions and silence community groups which have meaningful concerns about growth plans being presented and carried out.

To see more information relevant to our situation in Newmarket, please go to: www.preserveglenway.ca.

A press conference was held Thursday at 7pm at the Newmarket Town Hall where MPP Frank Klees made a statement regarding the intent of the Bill and would be seeking support from all parties before a debate on the bill as early as mid-April.  

In Mr. Klees message he stated that he believes even the introduction of this Bill will send a message to Developers that they need to work more closely with Municiplaties to satisfy their needs and not just rely on the OMB.  At the same time, local elected officials (and their Planning departments)  need to be held more accountable for planned development.  He stated that Councils that vote NO against proposed development knowing the OMB has a history of supporting a Developer is also a practice the Bill will stop.

This is a positive for our fight over the development of Glenway and it demoinstrates again that our voice is being heard. 

 For more information go to:

 Bill 35, Preserving Existing Communities Act, 2013 – Revised and reintroduced as Bill 41

http://www.frank-klees.on.ca/CurrentIssues/PMB_PreservingExistingCommunitiesAct.htm

 Frankly Speaking, March 19, 2013

http://www.frank-klees.on.ca/Newsroom/2013/FS_PreservingExistingCommunitiesMar19.htm

 Glenway Preservation Association Marks 1^st Anniversary with

Renewed Direction and Mandate

For Immediate Release

February 19, 2013

 The Glenway Preservation Association (GPA), held its first Annual General Meeting on February 12, 2013 to set its future direction and reconfirm its mandate on behalf of its members. 

 Ron Kassies, outgoing president of the GPA, provided an overview of the group’s accomplishments since its inception last April, 2012. The GPA is the sole incorporated and official association registered with the Town of Newmarket to represent the residents of Glenway against the development of the golf course and preserve the integrity of the “open green space” zoning of the property in the Town’s Official Plan.

 ‘It has been a real pleasure to lead the GPA the past year and a half and I want to thank the executive team, all of the volunteers, and especially the community for standing behind this important fight that we know will be won’ said Mr. Kassies.

 Committee chairs followed Mr. Kassies, with reports on activities relating to Town planning, legal and technical issues, communications and finance. The newly-established Fundraising Committee outlined plans for a series of events designed to raise funds to support the GPA’s plans to defend preservation of the Glenway lands at the Ontario Municipal Board, where the matter is undoubtedly headed.

 Following the announcement of Mr. Kassies’ resignation due to a family career move, the membership elected a new Executive Committee. Christina Bisanz becomes the incoming president, David Sovran the new vice-president. Lois MacDonnell was re-elected Treasurer, and Wendy Van Straten will continue as Secretary.

 Ms. Bisanz concluded the meeting by thanking Ron Kassies for his leadership of the organization, and commitment to preserving the Glenway lands. As the founding president of GPA, she noted that “Ron kept us focused strategically, ensuring that we established and maintained credibility and kept our approach fact-based”.

 For the future, Ms. Bisanz advised that in addition to continuing to address technical issues related to its opposition of the development, key priorities will be to raise funds, and recruit volunteers to assist with events, communication and fundraising. Bisanz also noted that the GPA will be challenged to continue to engage the community in a positive way. “We cannot allow apathy and disbelief to stand in the way of our fight,” she said. “The community needs to stand together to win, or face seeing this precious green space paved over.”

 For more information contact:

 Brian Gard

Chair, Communications Committee

905-836-9253

contact@preserveglenway.com

Christina Bisanz

President

905-717-9059

contact@preserveglenway.com

 www.preserveglenway.ca

 Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

https://www.facebook.com/PreserveGlenway

twitter: PreserveGlenway

by Gordon Prentice published on January 8, 2012 on ShrinkSlessorSquare.ca

Newmarket Theatre is bursting at the seams as I arrive for the Glenway meeting just before 7pm.

The doors are barred.

No more room!

We are ushered to the overflow room, the cavernous High School cafeteria, which is filling up rapidly.

Glenway people are turning out in force for this “Statutory Public Meeting” called to discuss the future of their neighbourhood.

Read more