Richmond Hill wins court battle against OMB over parkland; fight far from over – Sept. 17, 2016 Toronto Star

A Sept. 17, 2016 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Richmond Hill wins court battle against OMB over parkland: An Ontario court has ruled that the Ontario Municipal Board exceeded its mandate when it set new policy on parkland.”

The opening paragraphs read:

The Town of Richmond Hill has emerged victorious in its challenge of an Ontario Municipal Board decision that would have significantly reduced the amount of parkland the municipality could demand from developers in exchange for building condos in the booming suburb.

In a decision released this month, a panel of divisional court judges struck down a 2015 OMB decision that set a cap on how much green space the town could request from builders.

It also found that the OMB — the provincially legislated board with the power to overturn municipalities’ planning choices — exceeded its mandate when it demanded the town use the rate it had set, and not the one determined by the Planning Act.

“The approach taken by the OMB is not only unreasonable on the plain wording of the legislation,” says the divisional court decision. “It is inconsistent with the role that it is intended that municipalities will play in deciding individual planning decisions that affect their citizens.”

[End of excerpt]

Fight not over

The article notes that, given that the decision is being appealed by developers, the fight is far from over.