Lakeview in Mississauga looks like a good place to move to, in the event you are looking to move

Update:

A recent post, regarding related topics, is entitled:

Land sale brings Mississauga closer to a waterfront that avoids Toronto’s mistakes – Dec. 22, 2016 Globe and Mail

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We have a couple of good comments at a recent post entitled:

If you receive a Notice from the Committee of Adjustment, here’s a Guide to the Notice

By way of bringing attention to the discussion, I am pleased to post the comments below:

Roman writes:

I certainly do not support lot splitting but I feel that we have no real input.

The Committee of Adjustment may refuse the proposal of lot splitting but the the applicant will only carry it forward to the OMB and this is where we the people of the neighbourhood are stepped on without any consideration. This is a huge problem. Really frustrated with this process. Corner of James and 37th St. is a perfect example of this. It was originally (in 2012) decided by both CA and OMB not to allow lot splitting. Since then the house has been sold again, went through the process again, and now 2 new homes sit on the property thanks to the OMB. Seems that developers will get their way.

Jaan writes:

Good to read your message, Roman.

I agree. The situation we are facing is a huge problem.

The situation calls into question basic concepts – concepts such as the meaning of democracy, and the nature of a civil society in Canada come to mind.

In the circumstances, what can we do?

We can exercise such a level of human agency that is available to us, in the circumstances.

Please turn up at the Nov. 3, 2016 Committee meeting; your presence makes a huge difference

We can turn up at Committee of Adjustment meetings. We can write letters the Committee regarding particular cases, especially ones close to where we live. The unwritten law that appears to be in effect is that, from the Committee’s perspective, if no-one turns up at a hearing to express opposition, the Application goes sailing through.

From time to time, an Application is rejected by the Committee. Many such rejections are appealed, and are in a large proportion of cases accepted by the OMB.

What can we do, with regard to the OMB? We can support efforts, at the provincial level, to revise the legislation as it relates to OMB, so that decisions by Committees of Adjustment, or by municipal governments (e.g. with regard to Secondary Plans) are not overturned by the OMB.

Will the attempts to revise the OMB legislation lead to good results? Who knows?

In the meantime, we as residents can engage in networking, as we are doing through varied means, including through this website and many other social media venues.

Long Branch Neighbourhood Association

As well, we can support – through our active participation – in efforts to get the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association up and running. Much good work has been done in setting into place the foundation for the association. A next step will involve setting up a board of directors and staging a general meeting of the association.

What else can we do as residents, to the extent that it may be possible in a civil society, assuming it is a civil society that we live in (assumptions being subject to error, of course)? We can support the next steps in the work of the team of people putting together the Long Branch Urban Design Guidelines Pilot Project.

The Long Branch Urban Planning Guidelines Pilot Project

The Long Branch Urban Planning Guidelines Pilot Project recommendations will be of much interest to residents and the Committee of Adjustment. The chair of the Committee said at the Sept. 29, 2016 Committee meeting that the Guidelines will provide some parameters for the Committee to follow.

Currently, decisions are highly subjective.

We have heard the Urban Design Guidelines are due early in 2017, but an anticipated Fall 2016 meeting of an advisory group, has not yet been held.

In the meantime, please do write a letter regarding the 14 Villa Application. Please turn up at the Committee of Adjustment meeting on Nov. 3, 2016 in support of the opposition to the 14 Villa application and similar applications.

We do not know what direction things will go in future. Quite a few people, that I know through my community self-orgaizing work in South Etobicoke in recent years, have moved away from Long Branch. The world is the limit, when a person moves away. Some move elsewhere in Canada. Some leave the country altogether. People who move, in response to what is happening here, bring a rich set of talents and enthusiasm to other communities, possibly to places where civil society truly has the opportunity to flourish.

Shall we set up a Long Branch expat community in Lakeview (Mississauga)?

For people who do not seek to move that far, I would suggest that it would be great to set up an expat community in Lakeview to the west of Long Branch. For many years, I’ve been reporting, at this website, about the more optimal conditions for a flourishing civil society that is in strong evidence in Lakeview and the City of Mississauga in general.

The City of Mississauga has a clearly defined Strategic Plan that is – amazing as this may sound – actually developed with broad input from Mississauga residents, and from what I can see (as a blogger, I make a point of observing such things as closely as I can), the Strategic Plan is actually in the process of being implemented.

As well, the governance and communications structures at the City of Mississauga appear to me to be of the highest quality. In fact, it has been the quality of the communications related to the Lakeview Waterfront Connection Project, the Small Arms re-purposing project, and similar Lakeview projects that originally alerted me to the great projects, with a great deal of citizen input, going on right now at the City of Mississauga.

 

1 reply
  1. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    A few more thoughts: The City of Mississauga is just the right size. Large, not too large. The Mississauga Councillors and the Mayor work together really well. I see this all the time. I often attend media events at the City of Mississauga, when they are connected to topics I write about at my website.

    What I see at the City of Mississauga is always source of inspiration for me, with the exception of the Peel Regional Police Service, whose problems appear to be similar to problems at the Toronto Police Service, as I have noted in previous posts.

    The City of Toronto, as a consequence of the Amalgamation process, which really did not make a whole to of sense, is too large. We in Long Branch are at the periphery. It’s like the people in the Hinterlands, as contrasted to the Metropolis, in the days of colonial empires such as the British empire.

    In contrast, in the Village of Long Branch days, before the Village became a part of a larger governance structure (associated with Etobicoke as a stand-alone structure within the Metropolitan Toronto government), things were different.

    In those days, there were many Aldermen (they were all called Aldermen, even if the person was female), and residents knew them, could speak with them when they ran into them at the local store. Everyday residents had input on matters of concern. Their voice was heard.

    The current municipal governance structure, say in Wards 5 and 6, is less than ideal. It works on some levels, to the benefit of local residents. On other levels, the needs and wishes of local residents are not taken into account, or are actively thwarted.

    The Amalgamation of local School Boards leading to creation of the Toronto District School Board has created a situation that has parallels with the relatively dysfunctional form of governance that is evident at the municipal governance level in Toronto. I have written many posts over the years regarding provincial-level inquiries related to the Toronto Board.

    At the school level, at an anecdotal level (the level from which my observations are based) I can say that first-rate work is being done in Etobicoke local schools – for example at Richview Collegiate Institute.

    At a Board-wide level, however, from reading inquiry reports, related for example to the role of Trustees at the TDSB, my sense is that the same problems, related to size and scale of operations, that are evident at the City of Toronto are evident as well at the Toronto District School Board.

    Reply

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