The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Town rejects complaint from developer Continued from page 1 3 · Thursday, July 15, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Paulus said without the delays Northland would have met the April 1 deadline. Ward 3 Councillor Mary Chapin said Town staff cannot be blamed for every delay stating that at one point the development services department could not review the hotel's revised structural drawings because Northland's civil engineer had misplaced them. This engineer was terminated and it took some months for Northland to replace him and resubmit the relevant documents. Northland's General Council Bernie Malach said any contributions Northland made to the delays in the project were as a result of a lack of clarity in the instructions about requirements coming from the Town. Northland said its complaint warranted consideration because Town staff had not told the company that development charges would be going up on April 1, 2009. "In Northland's experience in well over 100 jurisdictions staff have always alerted the applicant of rate increases," said Malach. "Northland realizes that the Town does not have a legal obligation to provide notice of a rate increase, but not withstanding this it has been the practice of municipalities to do so." In his presentation, assistant Town solicitor David Huctwith stated that information on the April 1 development charge increase was publicly available. He said it was Northland's responsibility to find out what the current and future rates would be. Town staff also pointed out that they do not typically warn developers about such increases. Malach said that in bringing the complaint forward Northland is appealing to Town council's sense of fair play and their encouragement of business expansion. "A Google search with respect to `Oakville Economic Development' revealed 50 entries on the first five pages referring to Oakville's attitude and promotion of economic development," said Malach. "The Economic Development Strategy of Oakville focuses on business retention and expansion to ensure that Oakville maintains its competitive business in the marketplace and it is responsive to the needs of businesses. This means ensuring businesses have the information they need when they need it, informing them of local, provincial and federal programs for funding and training and, I emphasize this part, helping them navigate the development process in Oakville." This appeal did not impress Ward 1 Councillor Ralph Robinson, who put forward a motion to dismiss Northland's complaint. Robinson said if Northland was so frustrated with the time Town staff was taking to get their application processed they could have emailed or called the mayor or another member of council. Northland did not do this, Robinson pointed out. Ward 6 Councillor Max Khan, who voted to dismiss the complaint along with the rest of council, said Town staff did their job in taking as long as they did to consider the application. "I think there may have been some delays in this application, but I don't believe those delays were unreasonable given the complexity of the matter," he said. "When our staff is given an application they are expected to review that application thoroughly and on its merits, not in light of a pending rate change date. I think to suggest an application should be expedited and less carefully considered given that date would be contrary to what our wishes are here." SHUTTERS · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Service Authorized Eclipse Shutters Dealer CALIFORNIA & PLANTATION · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High Quality at Affordable Prices FREE Shop at Home Service SHUTTERS ETC. 905.691.4455 www.shuttersetc.ca