THUNDER BAY -- A proposed subdivision was deemed premature by city administration and council unanimously agreed.
Ian Bodnar owns 27 hectares of land between Paquette Road all the way to Scarlet Avenue. A zoning amendment would have seen an initial 24 houses go ahead, with a plan to take that to 68 one day. It would also need city council to include some land just outside of its urban area limit, something that's being considered as a growth area in the city's draft official plan. Stefan Huzan, representing Bodnar, said council has the ability to make that decision.
"You have the flexibility in your official plan to read a boundary which is a fuzzy line and adjust it accordingly,” he said.
But the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said that would require a change to the city's official plan. City administration said that it hadn't heard back from Bodnar on a number of issues from engineering to traffic studies. Residents nearby said while they're not necessarily opposed to a new subdivision moving in, they didn't know what exactly the plan was.
"That is not planning and that is our point," Bill Addison, who lives in a neighbouring subdivision, said.
Addison said he didn't even know what he was responding to at a public meeting Monday as there was no plan in place.
Development services manager Mark Smith said the proposal was unusual as it didn't follow the normal process.
"For all we know this is perfectly desirable development,” Smith said.
"This needs to come back in a normal process.”
