The Ontario Municipal Board needs major reforms to give Centretown residents a louder voice in the community’s growing number of development projects, say three provincial election candidates.
The Liberal, NDP and Green Party candidates for Ottawa Centre are all promising changes to the OMB, the body of appeal in city development issues, to give community members a bigger say in decisions that alter their neighbourhood.
As more people move into Centretown and the number of development sites grow, the voices of residents are crucial to keep the area from losing its identity, says Liberal Yasir Naqvi, Ottawa Centre’s incumbent MPP.
“The community isn’t against (development) because they know that it makes a more vibrant community,” says Naqvi. “The challenge is how we are putting that in place, and what kind of voice the community has in changing the character of the neighbourhood.”
Naqvi is proposing four changes to the OMB, including introducing anti-SLAPP litigation that would prevent lawsuits meant to silence those who stand up against big corporations.
Naqvi also wants to make community development plans part of official city plans.
Both Green Party candidate Kevin O’Donnell, who supports Naqvi’s proposals, and the NDP’s Anil Naidoo agree the OMB is long overdue for a change that would equalize the David versus Goliath fight they say occurs now between Centretown community groups and development firms.
“We need to change who is judging (the appeals) because the OMB is clearly biased in favour of developers,” says Naidoo.
O’Donnell says developers are able to take advantage of the OMB right now to suit their own needs, circumventing what cities intended to do.
“With these changes to the OMB, we’re going to see the end of 35-storey towers beside one storey homes,” he says
O’Donnell pointed to the convent-turned-condo site in Westboro as proof of the OMB’s shortfalls and warned that unregulated development could pave over farms and transportation routes in the future.
Although the OMB is a common enemy for the candidates in Ottawa Centre, they also questioned each other on the issue.
Naqvi cannot be counted on to follow through with his promises, says Naidoo.
“There’ve been many years when Mr. Naqvi has had the chance to stand up for our community against a host of different projects and he hasn’t,” says Naidoo.
He cites Lansdowne Park and the Ashcroft Homes-owned former convent as examples.
“To wait until an election to make statements (about the OMB) when Dalton McGuinty himself has not said anything leaves this as a promise that is waiting to be broken.”
O’Donnell shares these worries.
“We are afraid that the Liberals won’t share Mr. Naqvi’s views and they won’t go through,” says O’Donnell, adding both he and the Green Party would be committed to changing the OMB.
However, candidates might be going down the wrong track with proposed changes to the OMB, says Eric Darwin, the president of the Dalhousie Community Association.
Darwin says giving community groups too much power could tie development projects up in partisan battles between small groups with different views on development.
“Personally, I don’t share that distrust or dislike of the OMB,” says Darwin, “because when cities make planning decisions based on local, short-term pressure issues then the larger plans can be avoided,”
Darwin also says Centretown residents do have a strong enough say in development issues and community groups take a very active role in negotiations with developers.
But the president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, Charles Akben-Marchand, disagrees with Darwin, saying the changes to the OMB would give power back to the community and its elected leaders.
“I think there is a consensus among community representatives that there is a problem with the OMB,” says Akben-Marchand.
“The decisions of the OMB tend to support the development industry and it’s taking away from the community decision making authorities.”