Jeff Leiper’s Zoning Leap Of Faith
“… of interest to this ward will be consideration of the proposed new delegated power on minor re-zonings. We’ve continued to throw scenarios at staff and I’m comfortable that I can support this. There has been some concern that delegated power would be used to increase heights in our residential neighbourhoods by a storey without a vote; there are enough parameters around that that I don’t consider that a possibility.”
Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper, planning committee chairman
Ottawa City Councils and standing committees have a long and not especially illustrious history of delegating authority to staff or considering their advice as gospel.
Why? Current councillors would say they are too busy to handle the minutiae of small zonings and the like. Well, no one said being a councillor was easy and doesn’t require hard work. Furthermore, there is the significant matter of staff and major-project oversight which has been so bad that The Bulldog has dubbed it noversight.
And remember, this is very important, council delegated huge swathes of the light-rail project to such an extent that it found it had trouble looking into LRT matters in the rare event our elected representatives were concerned.
So sure councillor, let’s delegate a little more authority. What could go wrong?
Furthermore, the most egregious error in the quote above, is not mentioning the “parametres” of who-knows-what when it comes to controlling heights. “I don’t consider that (height problems perhaps?) a possibility” and then gives no specific reason for his great confidence in this measure. Maybe he doesn’t know the reasons for his confidence in such a delegation of authority
Do remember that Leiper is one of the biggest boosters of more height in residential areas such as Highland Park where the “rich” people live.
Typical don’t-sweat-the-big-and-small-details from Leiper. Just don’t bother your pretty heads Kitchissippians and keep walking your designer dogs and expensive bikes (and tony cars) and pass the white wine and canapes.
Maybe Kitchissippi residents are getting what they deserve from Leiper but the rest of the city isn’t.
Being a councillor requires hard work along with the notoriety and delegating authority for this group is getting one more task off the table.
Another canape, councillor?
Ken Gray
This newsletter excerpt is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
No other City in Ontario considers changing Heights by a whooping 25% can be delegated to planners. This is NOT a minor change. There is one thing: Councillors will have 7 days to kill the change and communities 14 days which is not enough time.
I’m am confused by the baffle gab from Jeff Leiper. What is he really saying? “If I pass the buck then it’s okay for me to throw up my hands and say “Hey, it wasn’t my decision””. In the ’60s this was known as a cop-out. What is the current term or politically correct phrase?
In order to conceal their lack of ability, knowledge and complete absence of leadership abilities our councillors and mayor, will do anything to decrease their work load making more time for photo-ops and pushing their own agendas, delegating work meets their needs. It is unfortunate that this is a very bad decision that will remove any citizen opposition to changes and increases the possibility of collusion or suspicion of collusion between planning and developers. We need more transparency not less.