BUILDING HEIGHTS: Who Do You Trust?
Two different interpretations of the City of Ottawa delegated authority on building heights from the planning committee chairman and the Bay ward councillor.
So who do you trust?
“… 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
“The criteria would also …include applications seeking a height increase up to five storeys or 25 per cent of the current permitted building height. That would ensure height-increase requests are proportionate to existing permissions and would prevent an applicant from seeking significant additional height through a minor rezoning. Applications that do not meet the amended criteria would still be processed as major re-zonings.”
Bay Councillor Theresa Kavanagh
Whatever you do, don’t trust the Joker.
For You:
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Obviously, neither can be really trusted as their interpretations are very different. My experience also indicates that you can’t trust planners either when determining what is a minor vs a major rezoning change.
Councillor Kavanagh set out in plain-ish English what the proposed resolution would encompass. Councillor Leiper states what he has concluded, with no back up on why. Is because he doesn’t comprehend what has been proposed, or is it that he thinks the residents of his ward aren’t bright enough to understand?
But to answer your question of who to trust: neither. Councillors have the statutory duty to oversee staff. Not just on the big decisions, but on the mundane decisions as well. That these two councillors think this can be accomplished by delegating authority (again) speaks volumes to their understanding of the job requirements. And their understanding of the job requirements is unsatisfactory.
If Councillors keep delegating their authority to others, shouldn’t there be a corresponding reduction in salary to match? If they are making less decisions, which is what we voted them to do, then maybe they should earn less. I’m fairly certain I never saw City of Ottawa employee names on a ballot.
MM. Hopefully any reduction in salary to councilors would not be reassigned to senior staff. It has become apparent of late that they are equally incompetent. I think any money taken away from councilors would be better spent on “thinking caps”.