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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 13 ,2 02 0 | 12 oakville.ca Notice of Completion of Environmental Study Report Wyecroft Road Improvements from Bronte Road to Kerr Street Municipal Class Environmental Assessment The Town of Oakville has completed a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Study (Class EA) for improvements to Wyecroft Road that includes South Service Road West from Bronte Road to Kerr Street. The study considered improvements to meet the needs of the town to 2041. The study was conducted in accordance with 'Schedule C' requirements as outlined in the Municipal Engineers Association "Municipal Class Environmental Assessment," (October 2000, as amended to 2015). This process is approved under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. As part of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process, an Environmental Study Report was completed for the project. The Environmental Study Report is available for review for 30 days, until March 9, 2020. The report is available on the town's website at oakville.ca. A hardcopy is available at Town Hall: Town Hall, ServiceOakville 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville ON Weekdays: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Interested persons are encouraged to review the Environmental Study Report and provide comments by March 9, 2020, to the project contacts listed below. For further information, or if you have any accessibility requirements in order to participate in this project, please contact: Syed Rizvi, M.Sc., P.Eng., Project Manager Town of Oakville 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, ON, L6H 0H3 905-845-6601, ext. 3981 or syed.rizvi@oakville.ca Margaret Parkhill, P.Eng., Consultant Project Manager IBI Group, 55 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, ON, M4V 2Y7 416-596-1930, ext. 61578 margaret.parkhill@ibigroup.com If concerns regarding this project cannot be resolved in discussion with the Town of Oakville, you may request that the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks make an order for the project to comply with Part II of the Environmental Assessment Act (referred to as a Part II Order), which addresses individual environmental assessments. Part II Order Request forms can be found on the MECP website at municipalclassea.ca. Requests must be submitted to the addresses listed below and received by March 9, 2020. A copy of the request should also be sent to the project contacts listed above. If no request has been received by March 9, 2020, the town is able to proceed with the project as presented in the Environmental Study Report. Minister Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks 77 Wellesley Street West, 11th Floor Toronto, ON, M7A 2T5 minister.mecp@ontario.ca Director, Environmental Assessment and Permissions Branch Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks 135 St. Clair Avenue West, 1st Floor Toronto, ON M4V 1P5, enviropermissions@ontario.ca Information collected will be used in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. With the exception of personal information, all comments will become part of the public record. Notice first posted February 6, 2020 Toronto politicians andToronto politicians andT residents frustrated by the delay in regulating the city's short-term rentals need look only as far as Oakville to see the complexities of re- stricting operations of on- line accommodation plat- forms such as Airbnb. forms such as Airbnb. f The renewed calls for a clampdown on short-term rentals used as party hous- es come after Friday night's fatal shooting of three peo-fatal shooting of three peo-f ple in a downtown condo. Of particular concern are homes rented by landlords who don't live there and are simply operating them as de facto hotels.facto hotels.f The uproar has sparked fresh questions about thefresh questions about thef corporate citizenship of rental platforms -- not just Airbnb, but Expedia, VRBO and others. Oakville passed its short-term rental regula- tion in March 2018. Like To- ronto, it confined short- term rentals to the princi- pal residence of the land- lord. It is ahead of Toronto in delivering letters to land- lords informing them they are required to pay an an- nual $237 licence fee and in- forming online rental oper-forming online rental oper-f ators of a $44,500 charge -- money designed to cover Oakville's enforcement costs. While some operators have moved out of the short- term market there, Airbnb continues to advertise Oak- ville rentals. There were more than 300 on its site on Monday. But it has yet to pay the registration fee making its operation there illegal from the town's per- spective. "They don't have a li- cence to operate so I would say they are operating in vi- olation of the licensing by- law," said Jim Barry, direc- tor of municipal licensing. Oakville's licensing fee looks to be among the high- est in North America. But Barry says that may not be accurate given many larger municipalities, including Toronto, have additionalToronto, have additionalT nightly rental fees in their systems. Still, the town is now re- considering its short-term fee structure and Airbnb'sfee structure and Airbnb'sf objections are "a factor" in what Barry described as a broader licensing fee re- view that will go before council in the spring. He says Airbnb has been "adamant" that it opposes the fee structure. A spokesperson for the company would only say, "We are currently in discus- sions with the Town of Oak- ville regarding their regula- tory framework." Barry stressed that Oak- ville was taking a progres- sive approach to short-term rental enforcement and "didn't want to rush into charges or going to court." "The best outcome for residents and businesses in the area is if we can figure out how this licensing pro- gram works and provides the necessary health and safety, consumer protec- tion, nuisance control for the residents while being reasonable for the business- es involved," he said. In Toronto, where it is believed Airbnb alone has more than 20,000 listings, the online companies will have to pay a one-time $5,000 licence fee and an on- going $1 for every night booked. Toronto's short-termToronto's short-termT rental enforcement may not be happening fast enough for some but the city isfor some but the city isf working aggressively to get its licensing and enforce- ment in action, said Carle- ton Grant, executive direc- tor of Municipal Licensing and Standards. He said it would have been unwise to move ahead during the provincial Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT). But now that the decision has favoured the city, another attempt to ap- peal the bylaw through the courts won't slow the pro- cess down. Still, it will be at least the fall before the system is upfall before the system is upf and running. It's a huge un- dertaking, Grant said. The technology the city looked at two years ago is already out of date. "This is really transition- ing to a new regulatory re- gime where people have been renting out their plac- es going back years," Grant said. "We will not sacrifice ac- curacy for speed. When we do things too quickly we make a ton of mistakes and then it's not enforceable," he said. Fairbnb, a pro-regula- tion coalition, maintains that it is already illegal for landlords to rent properties that aren't their principal residences. Spokesperson Thorben Wieditz says the rental platform operators, including Airbnb, are bad corporate citizens. NEWS OAKVILLE PROVES IT'S NOT EASY TO REGULATE SHORT-TERM RENTALS TESS KALINOWSKI Toronto StarToronto StarT