Town of The Blue Mountains - Tier 1?Grey County and The Blue Mountains

By BMRA County Committee and Chair John Leckie with

contributions by our Budget Review Committee

At the Council Meeting on Monday June 20th, Councillor Michael Martin made the following motion which was passed in a 6 to 1 vote:

THAT the Town of The Blue Mountains resolves to investigate “Single Tier” status and if found appropriate, to seek from the Province of Ontario “Single Tier” status.

In a nutshell, this motion means that Blue Mountains is considering withdrawing from Grey County and eliminating an extra layer of government which more and more Ratepayers are concluding is redundant. But 2 key words need to be stressed: “seek” and “investigate”. The Motion does not offer the details of the solution. Council is simply exploring options at this stage. We do not know what the end result will look like.

Why investigate Single Tier?

As discussed in detail in recent BMRA Newsletters, there are numerous examples of inequities of the existing arrangement with the County. Here are some recent illustrations of these inequities:• The failure to return the full $1.5 million overcharge to

TBM by the County. • At least $12 million approved in renovations to the County

offices in the face of a shrinking population. No attempt to utilize redundant school facilities for County space.

• The inequity of big projects such as Long Term Care facilities being located at the far end of the County, away from TBM.

• The weighted voting inequity based on permanent population

Also, as our Budget Review Committee indicates regularly, TBM Ratepayers may be staring in the face a roughly 10% increase in expenses. There will be significant tax increases in 2017 and beyond.

Why did Councillor McGee dissent in his vote?

He asked Councillor Martin: what would the Tier 1 Motion add to the Options Workshop planned for September? That workshop, previously initiated by Councillor McGee, calls for an investigation by Council of options for a better deal with the County. Councillor Martin explained his Motion actually “complements” the Workshop. Interestingly the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, along with other Councillors,

all seemed to respond that it was important to send a signal to the County, and that TBM’s options need to be investigated. Examples of these options include BMRA member Al Fraser’s suggestion that by simply capping the amount sent to the County at 20% (versus the current 26% and rising), there might be a mutually acceptable near term solution. Similarly the Mayor has commented in the past that a “fixed funding formula” might be worth a discussion.

What is happening here is that success and growth actually require more capital. TBM has been unfairly depleted of its own tax base to excessively support the County. In other words, it should not be a surprise that, under the current arrangement with the County, TBM has to spend more money in the County while it is in need of funds during its own critical growth period.

The question is: Can TBM carry on subsidizing 8 other municipalities that are not doing so well?

When the BMRA started talking about this subject during the election in the fall of 2014, many people did not even know that Grey County was taking such a deep cut into TBM’s MPAC-generated revenues. Then when the Roads issue became obvious to Ratepayers, their thinking on this County relationship changed and now the dialogue is turning to:

“Yes …why not gain our autonomy from the County?”

And speaking of evolving … as mentioned in the previous BMRA Newsletter, during interviews with the Mayor, he had remarked that our Town is parked in an odd split with Simcoe and Grey when it comes to our MP and MPP representation. That thinking has evolved to musing about the possibility of having more direct MP and MPP representation if we were to include Meaford, Collingwood and Wasaga Beach and seriously explore The Georgian Triangle idea that has been kicked around for years. The population of such an entity would total about 110,000, big enough to elect our own politicians to Queen’s Park and Ottawa.

Meanwhile it feels like we are on the fringe of the Counties ....orphaned.

Therefore the BMRA is prepared to work together with Council and staff to start a process that will give TBM more autonomy over its destiny. We want to help our politicians get us “a better deal”, and we want to learn about alternatives that might improve the overall economy of all 9 municipalities in Grey County. As noted earlier in this article, there will be a “Workshop of Options for TBM” that Councillor McGee proposed. To understand how we got on this path to a Workshop to consider alternatives to Tier One, please go the article, “The Path to Tier 1” which can found on the insert of this BMRA newsletter.

Published by Blue Mountain Ratepayers’ Associationwww.bmratepayers.com

BOX 198, THORNBURY, ON N0H 2P0

AUGUST 2016

THE VIEW FROM BLUE

Official Plan Update BMRA is working for its membership

by Brian Nelson, Chair,

BMRA Official Plan Committee

The new Blue Mountains Official Plan is now “official”. It was approved by Town Council on May 31, 2016, and then by Grey County on July 21. The new OP is now formally in place as the policy document that will guide planning and development throughout the Town of the Blue Mountains.

This marks the end of what has been an OP marathon, starting way back in 2011. Everyone involved has their fingers crossed that the next Official Plan Review – something that is supposed to happen every five years – doesn’t take five years! We are grateful to the community representative on the OP Review Committee, John Corrigan, for his patience and advice all those years.

One of the main goals of the OP Review was to take what was really just a loose stitching together of old, already out-dated, plans from the former Township of Collingwood and Town of Thornbury, and consolidate these plans into one unified Official Plan with common land use designations and policies.

The hope is that this initiative will elim-inate some of the gaps, confusion and inconsistencies, and begin to shape a unified approach to planning for the whole Town.

From a ratepayers’ perspective, BMRA is hoping that the new OP will give the Town the tools it needs to operate a more streamlined, consistent and predictable approval process, and to enforce a high standard of community design and development.

Short Term Accommodation by Terry Kellar, Chair,

BMRA STA Committee

We reported in the April newsletter about the OMB Hearing for a Zoning amendment application for 209553 Hwy 26. The Hearing was to take place May 26 – 27 but it has been postponed at the request of the Appellant and is now scheduled for Feb 7 & 8 2017. The Committee feels this is an unacceptably long delay and have contacted the Town Council to see if the date can be moved up. Please contact the Town via Corrina Giles, the town clerk, if you would like to see an earlier date. The first meeting of the STA Licensing Committee, which is comprised of 3 Town Councillors, was held on June 21st. The purpose of the meeting was to consider four STA appeals under the licensing Bylaw. The STA owners appealed the demerit points they were assigned regarding infractions to the STA regulations, attempting to retain their STA licenses (which can be suspended if 15 demerit points have been assigned). Demerit points against specific STA locations can occur when various infractions are proven in situations of fire code violations, noise infractions, waste/garbage issues etcetera. The full list and the related demerit points are noted in Bylaw 2013-50, section 6.

BMRA helps to shape OP policies

You’ll recall from previous newsletters that BMRA was instrumental in a couple of key areas: We pushed Council to eliminate ‘bonusing’ for density and height in the new OP. The staff proposal was to waive OP density and height limits for developers who are willing to contribute community benefits – typically cash.

We didn’t like the way bonusing leads to a lot of special deals and uncertainty for neighbourhoods near development lands. Neither did the majority of Coun-cil, so bonusing is dead, at least for now.BMRA also worked to have the Town’s Community Design Guidelines (adopted by Council in 2012) formally recognized in the new Official Plan.

Referencing these in the OP makes it easier for the Town to ask developers to follow some basic principles of good design.

Our Sustainable Path – the Town’s guidelines for building healthy and sus-tainable communities – are also refer-enced in the OP. Lots of local groups and residents contributed to these doc-uments, and inclusion in the new OP will hopefully mean they are more likely to be used and less likely to sit on a shelf.

More work needed on STAs

BMRA also tried very hard to get some better policies for Short Term Accommo-dation in the new OP. Along with Coun-cillors Michael Seguin and Michael Mar-tin, we argued for strict policies to keep STAs out of all established residential neighbourhoods, and straightforward clarity, including mapping, to define ex-actly where STAs are allowed.

The STA issue, however, is complicated by earlier decisions of the Ontario Mu-

Grey County Council is currently in the process of updating the County’s Devel-opment Charges Background Study and By-laws. Development charges are fees on new developments that fund growth-related costs to a municipality. Development Charges are used across parts of Ontario and are governed by the Development Charges Act, 1997. The County’s 2016 Development Charges Background Study shows that growth directly affects County-wide services like ambulances, the health unit, road re-lated services and more. Without development charges, these new costs need to be fully paid by taxpayers.

A Stakeholder Information Session will be held before the public meeting to review the study process, discuss initial calculated development charge rates and confirm the next steps. Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 1:00 PM, Grey Roots Museum and Archives, 102599 Grey Road 18, Georgian Bluffs. All interested parties are invited to attend the Public Meeting on: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 10:00 AM Grey County Administration Build-ing, 595 9th Avenue East, Owen Sound

nicipal Board. The Town sought legal advice and decided to postpone any reference to STAs in the new OP. The Town’s Zoning By-laws are up for review next, and the intent is to draft enforce-able new OP policies for STAs that will mesh with the OMB rulings and the Zoning By-law revisions. In the mean time all of the existing STA policies will remain in place.

OP “rubber” hits the planning “road”

So, there will be no new STA policies, at least for now, but the other 99% of the new OP is in place. In many ways this is just the beginning. Whether the 300-plus pages of good intentions are actually translated into the kind of development that supports and en-hances the things we love about this Town will depend a lot on how the new OP is used and interpreted in day-to-day practice. We’ll be watching! ____________________________________

The Path to Tier 1 – A Deeper DiveBy BMRA County Committee and

Chair John Leckie with contributions

by our Budget Review Committee

Grey County’s operating costs are shared by its 9 Lower Tier Municipalities on the basis of their respective Total MPAC Assessment (as mandated under the Municipal Act). On this basis our Town pays 25.9% ($13.3mm) of the downloaded County costs which in 2015 totaled $51.4mm. Based upon the most recent census numbers available (2011) our Town represents 7% of the total population of Grey County of 92,568.

TBM finds that its share of the County tax apportionment is inequitable in that with 7% of the population of the County or 13% of the households, TBM is responsible for 26% of the total County tax levy.

At the recent presentation by County Warden/County CAO the current Grey County population was reported at 93,000....very low to no growth since 2011. Population, however, plays no role in allocating County expenses. It is used to allocate votes to Lower Tier Municipalities, where TBM has a mere 2 votes out of 18 on County Council.

Now let us turn to the driver of County Cost allocations- Total MPAC Assessment. Our Town’s Total MPAC number has grown from $2.7bn in 2011 to $3.6bn in 2015 and this very strong growth has exceeded all other Lower Tier Municipalities in Grey

County in multiples resulting in our share of County expenses continuing to increase. While we do not have the Total Assessment numbers for 2017 for Grey County, we do know that the TBM’s contribution is increasing again at a higher rate than any other Lower Tier municipalities in Grey County. This will no doubt move our 25.9% higher, begging the question-how high can it go?

The problem is difficult and the solution, more so, particularly when it appears that TBM is the only party claiming that the present allocation formula is no longer equitable to its Ratepayer base. Sadly the view under the County’s senior management and County Council is that they are merely following the allocation rules under the Municipal Act.

The BMRA believes that its situation is truly unique and, on that basis, it should be possible to agree on an exception to the rule. The exception, which we believe has merit, for consideration at the County level and the Provincial level, is to establish a cap on total County expense allocation at 20% for ANY Lower Tier municipality in Grey County. Under such a cap structure, TBM would continue to support other Lower Tier municipalities in Grey County, but it clearly would free up some capital to finance TBM’s own growth and success.

At this stage we are still working on exactly how such an exception might be phased into the current County Allocation structure and are hopeful to add such an alternative to the proposed Council Workshop scheduled for September. We offer that option

to indicate we are somewhat flexible on arriving at a better deal with the County but there is no question that the autonomy of going to Tier 1 makes the most sense.

The BMRA is committed to ensuring that TBM’s tax dollars are fairly, and appropriately, optimized for its ratepayers.

What would TBM do with these additional funds?

• Create a much more equitable system for its taxpayers

• Provide septic, water and waste water services to Clarksburg ($15 million investment)

• Establish a transit system within TBM while connecting it to Collingwood, Meaford and Owen Sound (how can you have affordable housing without transit?)

• Develop and embellish cycling paths throughout TBM, especially on Grey Roads 19 and 13

• Build a bridge, like the one that was built for Webber’s on Hwy. 11, or a tunnel, to ensure the safety of all Georgian Trail participants crossing Hwy. 26 just east of Thornbury

• Develop better parking solutions in Blue Mountain Village

• And, ultimately, Reduce Our Taxes!

Open Letter Craigleith Cultural Heritage Depot and Museum

Mayor and Council of The Blue MountainsMill Street, Thornbury, OntarioCanada N0H 2P0

As a past chair of The Blue Mountain Watershed Trust, the Georgian Triangle Tourist Association, the Georgian Triangle Tourist Association, member of council for many years and current chair of the depot board I wish to express my strong support of the proposed structure of placing the depot under the wing of the library. Having worked so hard for its existence for many, many years it was wonderful to see its restoration and operation as a vital part of, not only the Craigleith area but also, our wonderful town as a whole. Thousands of volunteer hours and dollars have gone into its preservation over the years and the loss of our curator several years ago was a real shame.

It now seems as if we have found a way to re-establish a curator position, provide an extremely enhanced hours of operation schedule, a satellite library function as well as an additional gateway to our town hall at a substantial reduction in cost to the ratepayers. This can only be considered as a “win-win” scenario.

People can pick up and drop off library books at the depot, there will be even greater hours of operation and we will finally once again have a much need curator. The depot will again be a vital hub in our vibrant community and with over-all savings to our ratepayers.

Over the years I have worn several hats but at the end of the day they have all been directed at and for this wonderful place we now call home and I hope we can move forward in the best interests of this very same community that I love and have worked so hard for.

Thanking you for your time and consideration herein and for the opportunity of having been of service to you, I remain

Yours very truly

Grey County Development Charges (On New Property Owners?) A lot of Counties do not have Development Charges (DCs). Grey County does have them and a significant portion of those de-velopment charges are levied in the Town of The Blue Mountains.

The resulting funds from the development charges are often invested elsewhere in the county; the spending of these fees having very little relationship to the source. It is the BMRA’s position that it would be high handed, perhaps inflammatory, if the County goes through with an increase to $7400 a property. The increase in fees will have a major impact on the one actively developing municipality in the County: The Town of The Blue Mountains.”

County of Grey Development Charges Revenue 2011 - 2015

Year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total 2011 2015

The Blue Mountains 94,886 186,146 228,456 284,461 444,822 1,238,771 Al l municipalities in Grey County

623,801 1,024,560 1,075,487 1,085,232 1,510.687 5,319,767

Percent of revenue from The Blue Mountains

15% 18% 21% 26% 29% 23%

Revenue from development charges paid to Grey County has doubled from The Blue Mountains in five years, from 15% of revenue to 29%.

Robert Waind

in the oil shale industry. But back to the Library, it isn’t just a Library. We have come to realize that the Library is really a community hub.

Mayor John McKean: Many of our seniors use it for computer needs. Then to pick up on your point about using the WiFi in the Town Hall while we fix the roof, the region has summer apple farm help who use our WiFi, so the Town Hall makes sense for that. There are several developmental programs available as well.

BMRA: So it’s not just a Library, a fact that we have come to appreciate. Like a lot of things, it is obvious that it is all about Communication.____________________________________

The Mayor’s InterviewThe BMRA interviewed Mayor John

McKean, Town of The Blue Mountains:

Re: The L.E.Shore Library

BMRA: Now that you are Chairman of the Board of The Blue Mountains Library, one would hope that in terms of accountability, there is really no place for the politicians to hide. So, has the kerfuffle passed?

Mayor John McKean: Well there may still be some emotion left but, yes, I hope it is passing and we are now providing even more services with roughly the same resources/cost structure.

BMRA: Yes, and the letter from Robert Waind in this edition of the BMRA newsletter indicates that.

Also, we have spoken to one of the Library Directors, Lloyd Brown, who has offered the suggestion of a Liaison Committee that might be worth considering for the improvement of communication. At thesame time, a new issue has emerged which will further test you, there is an imminent problem concerning the roof of the library. There will be some question as to how to deal with the impact of that initiative on the community, in an open fashion. Can the roof be fixed in a way that keeps costs under control yet still tries to serve the public during the construction work?

Mayor John McKean: The reality is that we have to “move on” to the roof issue before us. Estimates have the cost at $300,000 to fix the flat portions. We hope to do this in a way that allows for all the Library programs to still be serviced by the staff.

BMRA: Some have expressed concern about a possible closure of 6 weeks and that it might impact the salaries of the staff.

Mayor John McKean: The way I see it, the staff will be fully employed throughout the repairing of the roof as they manage the logistics of dealing with all the community programs that go on there. Churches can be booked, for example. In any case, there will be a fair bit of shuffling which will be done by staff.

BMRA: Why not also use the open space in the TBM hall?

Mayor John McKean: Good idea, we will look into that.

BMRA: Are there reserves to cover this roof repair?

Mayor John McKean: Reserves total $229,000. Of that, $87,000 could be used by TBM without Library Board approval. One scenario would be to see if we could delay the repairs until spring and get more quotes rather than seek out 11 th hour services in a race to complete work before winter/November.

BMRA: If the Library looks after the programs adequately, do you think the community can accept a short time period of not having all of the books available? In other words, use Collingwood and Meaford for 6 weeks?

Mayor John McKean: Yes, and our website needs work to help with this matter. This is a good time to bring it up to speed to notify the community how the programs will work and where they will be located and the hours of service. The TBM website will also carry this information.

BMRA: It appears the roof situation has suddenly become a new critical issue and focus, so there will be more to explore on that matter. On another note, we noticed some very positive announcements relating to the Depot. The Library has hired a curator, Andrea Wilson, who all seem to agree will be an asset to our community.

Mayor John McKean: Feedback from ratepayers like you have confirmed that, yes, Andrea is a great hire. I did want to say that we have a small window of opportunity to capture our history, with Andrea’s appointment. As mentioned, we are working on our websites. More information on our history can be found here:

www.thebluemountainshistory.ca

BMRA: We recommend our members visit the Depot, we have included photos of the depot in this edition. Visitors will learn surprising things about our local history. For example, there was a periodwhen over 100 people were employed

New Sign Bylaw By Viv Alper

The Sign Bylaw Committee met on June 2 and discussed the memo that had been received from the consultant, Jim Dyment, following the Open House & Presentation of the new draft Bylaw.

The Committee requested clarification on some of the issues including the number of signs on a building with multiple tenants, the issue of brightness of backlit signs, and the description of a pylon sign (ie maximum height, ground clearance etc.).

This has delayed the process with the resulting timeline:

Early July 2016 - Re-draft of the Bylaw will be posted on the town website.

August 15, 2016 - Comments from the public to the Town are due.

August 25, 2016 - The Sign Bylaw Committee will then meet to review the comments.

September 12, 2016 - The Sign Bylaw Committee will report to the Committee of the Whole. We also think a staff report will be made by the Chief Planner, Michael Benner.

September 26, 2016 - The Committee of the Whole report will be presented to Council for approval.

BMRA Board of Directors

Peter Bordignon, President pbordignon@outlook.com

John Leckie, Vice-President john.leckie@rogers.com

Peter Sharpe, Treasurer pesharpe@rogers.com

Bill Pittaway, Secretary billpittaway13@gmail.com

Denis Fennessy djf@rogers.com

Paula Hope, Communications Chair paula@bookedsolid.ca

Blanka Guyatt, BM Environmental blankaguyatt777@gmail.com

Terry Kellar, STA Chair tkellar@sympatico.ca

Jane Moysey, Membership Chair jane@janemoysey.com

Brian Nelson, Official Plan Chair briannelson@sympatico.ca

Terry Thompson, Budget Review terencethompson@rogers.com

Michael Seguin Past-President

Dorothy Healey Past-President

705-607-1440www.bmratepayers.com

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The BMRA and the Georgian TrailBy Janet Findlay,

Georgian Cycle & Ski Trail

Association

Recently the Town approved a driveway access across the Georgian Trail, west of the new Foodland in Thornbury. The matter came to the attention of Councillors Michael Martin and Seguin who felt, as did many others, that the additional crossing was a hazard to Trail users. Martin and Seguin were unsuccessful in getting support for their motion that Council rescind the driveway approval.

Because the access application was for a driveway, not a roadway, the agreement governing Georgian Trail management authorized staff to have the final say. BMRA is relieved to know that approval of all future Georgian Trail crossings in The Blue Mountains will be the responsibility of Council.

Changes are in the works for the Trail’s management, which for 25 years has been the concern of three municipalities: Collingwood, The Blue Mountains and Meaford. A Board of Management consisting of representatives of all three municipalities currently operates the Trail and sets out rules on how changes are agreed. A new agreement among the three parties will put decisions about their section of the Georgian Trail into the hands of the individual municipalities, who must meet a common set of standards. In the case of trail crossings, all applications will be approved by Council and therefore subject to public review and comment.

This is all good news to the BMRA. A public level of oversight with respect to future Trail crossings in our developing community will hopefully reduce the growing potential for accidents. The Georgian Cycle & Ski Trail Association, the Blue Mountain Ratepayers’ Association, as well as other groups and individuals will be able to comment on these applications.

As well, the new agreement will make each municipality clearly accountable for its own Trail section. A government structure that works is essential for the The Georgian Trail, as it is a brand that is vitally important to each of the three municipalities and an essential component of the destination economy. __________________________________________________________________________

You are important to us and we value our relationship with you as members of the BMRA. We share information, opinions and provide news on various issues of concern in The Blue Mountains. Please pass this on to your neighbours and encourage them to join the BMRA.