The Town of The Blue Mountains is not interested in pursuing a joint planning department with Grey County.
At a special committee of the whole meeting on Nov. 4, The Blue Mountains council voted unanimously to reject participation in the county’s initiative to explore the possibility of creating a county-wide centralized planning department.
For the past several weeks, Grey County has been gathering input from local municipalities on the possibility of amalgamating local planning departments in an effort to create efficiencies and to speed up the planning process.
On a motion from Coun. June Porter, council chose to say no to the process and suggested the county pursue a hybrid model that would allow municipalities to participate in a joint planning department study if they so chose.
“What is the burning platform for change?” Porter asked. “What are the key indicators that need fixing? I’m not convinced by what I’ve seen, to date, that this is a good move for The Blue Mountains.”
Throughout the discussion on the matter, members of council cited the growth pressures on the town (The Blue Mountains is the second-fastest-growing municipality in Canada) and the work the town’s planning and development department has done to improve the planning process.
“We do a good job here,” said Coun. Gail Ardiel. “I just can’t imagine us going back in time and having centralized planning. We really want to stay where we are.”
Coun. Alex Maxwell expressed skepticism that a joint planning department would be any more efficient.
“Trying to drive efficiencies through planning is going to be a challenge. This looks like it will be a long path,” said Maxwell. “I’m quite comfortable leaving things as the status quo.”
At the meeting, Adam Smith, the town’s director of planning and development services, delivered a full report about the county’s joint planning department initiative. The full report can be found here.
Smith told council the county talks were in the “exploratory phase” and the project was looking at the joint planning model with a number of goals and objectives in mind including: human resources issues, customer service, efficiencies and reduction of duplication and consistency in the development process.
CAO Shawn Everitt also explained that the lower-tier municipalities are in control of the process.
“The Blue Mountains council controls the next step,” said Everitt, who said council had the ability to say no to the idea at any time. “The county can’t come in here with a hammer and say: 'we’re going to centralize planning services.' The fact is: they can’t.”
Coun. Paula Hope summed up the feelings around the council table with her comments on the matter.
“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” said Hope. “Things are going well in many ways. We’re created our own creative path.”
The motion to reject the initiative passed in a 4-0 vote. Mayor Andrea Matrosovs and Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon participated in the early portion of the meeting, but had to depart for other commitments before the final decision on the resolution was made. Coun. Shawn McKinlay was absent.
