Council allows Bayshore construction at 5 a.m.
Failure to consult residents the latest in trend of walking motions onto agenda
By Joanne Chianello, OTTAWA CITIZEN December 11, 2013 7:01 PM
The $200-million redevelopment at Bayshore Shopping Centre has been in the planning for ages, and the project’s groundbreaking was more than a year ago. So the construction schedule should not have come as a surprise to anyone involved.
And yet, at council’s last meeting of the year on Wednesday, Bay ward Coun. Mark Taylor walked a motion onto the agenda to allow construction to start at 5 a.m. for the next two years. He didn’t consult with the community before allowing the pre-dawn work. And because Taylor sprang the issue on council — instead of bringing his motion to the appropriate committee — the public wasn’t given a chance to comment on the exemption to the city’s usual noise rules.
“We didn’t know about this,” says Rehana Naseem, the administrative director of the Bayshore Community Association. “We have never been contacted regarding this proposal or decision. It would have been nice if the councillor would have approached the BCA in order to get feedback from the community.”
Now, there might be valid reasons to allow construction that early. If crews were authorized to bring their heavy machinery onto the site before 7 a.m., that would get large, slow-moving vehicles off the roads before the morning rush hour, potentially alleviating the horrendous traffic issues around Bayshore these days.
And Naseem points out that the Bayshore Shopping Centre has been a good corporate neighbour to the surrounding residents. From the community association’s experience with Bayshore so far, she expects the mall management to address any noise problems that might arise.
But it’s not really clear why this issue had to be rushed through council on Wednesday. At the very least, Taylor could have issued what’s known as a notice of motion, which could have made known his intent to recommend the noise bylaw exemption at the next council meeting scheduled for late January. That way, the folks being affected would have heard about the proposal and could have commented or asked questions.
After all, what’s six weeks in a multi-year project?
Taylor’s reasoning for asking his colleagues to waive the usual procedure (which they did) was rather specious: “Especially during the holiday season, there was a value in allowing them (Bayshore) to start earlier so they can minimize that traffic pressure that’s on roads.”
Except that the new 5 a.m. start time doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2014. So much for the holiday-shopping rationale.
Taylor’s surprise noise bylaw exemption is made all the worse by the fact that it appears to be a growing trend for either councillors or city staff to walk these types of motions onto the council agenda.
This year, council allowed and approved waivers to the city’s noise rules for the Lansdowne Park project, the Ashcroft Homes development of the former convent in Westboro, and the widening of Hwy. 417 — all without letting the public know first.
These are huge construction projects, and if special dispensation is needed where city bylaws are concerned, the people running the show should know ahead of time. Walking an item on to a council agenda is supposed to be reserved for real time-crunch emergencies in unpredictable situations, like working around the clock to fix a sink hole or a major water main break.
Council shouldn’t be waiving the rules because those involved — whether councillors, city staff or private citizens — didn’t get their acts together in time to plead their case to the appropriate committee.
Noise exemptions aren’t the only issues that have been walked on lately.
At last week’s finance committee meeting, a surprise motion to spend $1 million of Kitchissippi’s future “community benefit” money on hydro poles was moved by the ward’s Coun. Katherine Hobbs, leaving many in her community furious (at least on Twitter). That meeting also saw the release of the long-awaited report on how to move ahead with the embattled Airport Parkway pedestrian bridge, which will cost an additional $4.56 million.
Because no one knew these items would be discussed at the finance meeting, there was no public discussion of either issue. Both were passed at council Wednesday without question or comment.
And if that weren’t enough, Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt walked three complex motions onto the council agenda, all related to property owners having to pay for 2009 improvements to the local sewer system.
However, in this case, the most worrisome of the items — allowing five non-profits off the hook for their portion of the bill — was sent back to the committee stage after a number of veteran councillors balked, saying the motion could set an unintended precedent. (The non-profits’ deadline for deciding how to pay their fees was also extended.)
Making up policy on the fly is one of the dangers of walking items onto the council agenda. And springing changes to bylaws on an unsuspecting public for no valid reason isn’t ideal for democracy. This council seems to do that an awful lot, and it needs to stop.
But these walk-on motions will likely dwindle in 2014. Because if there’s anything that spurs politicians to want to be seen as consulting their constituents, it’s an election year.
jchianello@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/jchianello
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