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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday A pril 5, 2006 Lawyer advises council to meet in camera Continued from page 1 "The appeals by the private landowners have effectively shifted authority of decision making from council to the OMB," said Town solicitor Doug Carr at a special Planning and Development Council meeting Monday. "By virtue of the appeal, this got put on a different train track. The OMB now stands in council' s shoes. The OMB has all the powers to approve a secondary plan and council has no powers to finally approve a plan," said Catherine Lyons of the Toronto law firm Goodmans. Lyons will represent Oakville at the OMB hearing. Town council, its internal and external legal staff, began Monday's meeting making that abundantly clear. Then, it was made abun dantly clear council had little choice but to go behind closed doors -- go in camera -- to map out its legal strategy for the hearing-- and discuss any possible settlement options. Mayor Ann Mulvale defend ed against what she called Thank you for youi generosity during year's campaign. Together, we can build a healthy, caring and inclusive community. T public," Lyons told council. Lyons told councillors her advice regarding the N0MI challenge was "squarely" with in those parameters. Lyons told council that if it chose to receive her legal advice in public, "The town' s case before the 0MB may be prejudiced, and reasonable opportunities to settle issues Mayor Ann Mulvale and matters may be jeopard "misnomers" that have ized. This would not be in the dubbed such action "secret public interest." meetings." Mulvale noted that during Mayoral candidate Rob the initial north Oakville OMB Burton, who narrowly missed challenge (Official Plan unseating Mulvale in the 2003 Amendment (0PA) 198), chal: election -- results which were lengers like Oakvillegreen verified through a recount Conservation Association Inc. when Burton challenged them and Clear the Air Coalition Inc. in court-- registered as a can didn't divulge their legal strat didate for the mayor' s job in egy publicly. mid-February and has ques-' Though Mulvale commit tiofied in camera sessions as ted council would do as much "secret meetings" through his as it could in public, council Web site and blog. quickly moved behind closed It was also clear council doors .Monday -- with the was still stinging from ques unanimous agreement of all tions during, the recent 0MB councillors present hearing into the development Some councillors, includ proposal on the former Shell ing Ward 4`Councillors Renee House land on whether coun Sandelowsky and Allan Elgar, cil had made planning rather questioned why a draft report than legal decisions in camera. put before councillors Monday Under the Municipal. Act, was confidential. Elgar wanted council can go into private ses to know if developers were sion to discuss property, legal privy to it. or personnel matters. They heard it contained "The town is entitled to potential settlement informa obtain advice in camera, tion and Lyons said she was which puts it on equal footing more comfortable discussing with other parties before the its status, at least initially, in OMB, who are never obliged to private. have their legal advice given in k Lyons also said the report Rob Burton also'pertained to information about Halton Region and Conservation Halton, neither legislative body having waived the right to confidentiality. < f We definitely cannot have that discussion in public," said Lyons. An hour later, council resumed its public session to hear from the publjc, but they had left anticipating a lengthy in camera session. Yesterday morning, the town contacted them to advise council was to hear public del egations and would resume its meeting last night at 6:30 p.m. After reconvening to hear from the public, council antic ipated moving back into pri vate session for further discus sion. The meeting was held after The Oakville Beaver's press deadlines. Council has reserved every night this week - Monday through Thursday -- to con tinue the meeting if necessary. vThe August 0MB date was set in the wake of numerous pre-hearings in which the 0MB railed against the length of time estimated for the hear ing and told the parties to nar row the issues. The 0MB also ruled Burton could be a party to the hearing after a N0MI lawyer chal lenged Burton' s participation as a party on behalf of Clear the Air Coalition Inc. by ques tioning the group's member ship numbers. The 0MB heard Clear the Air Coalition had three mem bers; Burton, his wife, Wendy, and Dr. Boyd Upper of Mississauga however it ruled it could be a party. Lyons said OMB witness statements must be filed by June. 23 and the town must determine its case, its evidence and its witnesses to prepare. The N0MI appeal follows the 0PA 198 0MB appeal -- the Town's rezoning of north Oakville from agricultural to urban to conform to regional and provincial requirements to take population targets required by the province. The Town was working on its .North Oakville Secondary Plan (NOSP), but NOMI charged it was taking too long and appealed. Both plans call for higher density, transit-friendly plan ning dubbed New Urbanism. At dispute is the amount and location of green space. The Town envisions a Natural Heritage System while developers favour less green space to allow less dense resi dential development. 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