‘Shades of grey’: Town seeks authorized viewpoint on personal streets

If your residence is on a private highway and something goes awry, can the town aid you?

Collingwood council is hoping to uncover out.

Throughout the July 10 council meeting, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin place ahead a motion for the town to seek out a lawful viewpoint regarding the policies of non-public streets, to advise whether or not the town has the authority to address matters as they crop up on these types of roads in Collingwood.

“We have so numerous people now shopping for condominiums in our community. As they move in, they are recognizing the obligations, which we could assist make far better for them, like snow storage places or broader roadways so that the County (of Simcoe) could collect garbage,” said Hamlin. “There’s a whole vary of things that we could support our citizens with.”

“So just before we commence debating at this desk adjustments to the Formal System or possibly engineering benchmarks, workers has proposed it would be prudent to get a authorized feeling as to our authority to do so,” she explained.

Coun. Kathy Jeffery asked about expenditures of the movement.

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

The town’s chief administrative officer, Sonya Skinner, mentioned workers had not regarded prices as the motion had not nevertheless been passed, on the other hand she believed it would get about two hrs of legal time.

“Not a significant price. I feel it would be workable in just our common legal budget for preparing matters,” said Skinner.

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

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

Director of organizing, creating and economic development Summer time Valentine said the difficulty isn’t lower and dry.

“The subject of condominiums is that they are tenure and not land-use. They wander a grey spot beneath the Setting up Act,” she mentioned. “I’ve observed a lot of unique municipal techniques in conditions of regulation.”

“I visualize that is due to the fact the legal guidance is just not black and white and there are fairly a several shades of gray there,” she explained, warning that a jurisdictional scan would demand a ton of team means to total.

Coun. Deb Doherty mentioned she had been given an inquiry that working day from a resident of a condominium company on a issue of private streets, above which the city has no handle.

“It hammers home to me how essential it is for us to have an solution to this issue,” she reported.

Jeffery claimed requesting a lawful belief gave her pause.

“You can retain asking for lawful views and retain getting distinct ones till you get the solution you want,” she claimed. “I just would hope that our director of planning is confident that it would give us some composition and some thing to rely on other than the grey spot which is been referred to since usually, we’re just seeking to nail Jell-O to a tree.”

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