‘Shades of grey’: City seeks authorized belief on non-public streets

If your residence is on a non-public highway and one thing goes awry, can the town help you?

Collingwood council is hoping to find out.

During the July 10 council assembly, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin put forward a movement for the city to search for a legal viewpoint about the policies of private streets, to inform whether or not the town has the authority to tackle issues as they arise on these types of roads in Collingwood.

“We have so a lot of folks now buying condominiums in our neighborhood. As they move in, they are noticing the obligations, which we could aid make greater for them, like snow storage spots or broader streets so that the County (of Simcoe) could obtain rubbish,” claimed Hamlin. “There’s a whole array of factors that we could aid our people with.”

“So in advance of we start off debating at this table variations to the Formal Strategy or potentially engineering requirements, personnel has advised it would be prudent to get a authorized opinion as to our authority to do so,” she said.

Coun. Kathy Jeffery questioned about expenditures of the motion.

“What’s the price, and what bucket is it coming out of?” requested Jeffery.

The town’s chief administrative officer, Sonya Skinner, explained personnel had not thought of prices as the movement experienced not still been passed, nevertheless she approximated it would acquire about two hrs of legal time.

“Not a large cost. I imagine it would be manageable inside our typical lawful budget for arranging matters,” stated Skinner.

Coun. Christopher Baines asked if they could draw on the experiences of other municipalities.

“Has no other municipality in Ontario questioned the exact problem of their personnel and of their lawful associates and could they share that with us?” requested Baines.

Director of preparing, building and economic progress Summer months Valentine reported the problem isn’t reduce and dry.

“The issue of condominiums is that they’re tenure and not land-use. They stroll a grey place less than the Planning Act,” she reported. “I’ve seen many distinctive municipal approaches in terms of regulation.”

“I consider which is for the reason that the authorized advice is just not black and white and there are really a few shades of grey there,” she claimed, warning that a jurisdictional scan would need a good deal of employees means to full.

Coun. Deb Doherty said she experienced obtained an inquiry that day from a resident of a condominium company on a make a difference of non-public roads, in excess of which the city has no manage.

“It hammers property to me how critical it is for us to have an solution to this concern,” she mentioned.

Jeffery said requesting a authorized impression gave her pause.

“You can continue to keep asking for lawful opinions and maintain having diverse kinds until finally you get the answer you want,” she said. “I just would hope that our director of preparing is self-assured that it would give us some structure and some thing to count on other than the grey region that is been referred to since or else, we are just making an attempt to nail Jell-O to a tree.”

At the finish of discussion, council voted unanimously in favour of the motion.