One Hundred | 21 & 17 fl | U/C

[zanate]

Scenario A:  City Defers
- Momentum takes city to the OMB, the City has to hire lawyers and external planners, Momentum has to hire lawyers and planners, AND I still have to hire lawyers and planners to come along.

Scenario B:  City Approves
- I take Momentum to the OMB, city is no longer involved and we don't spend our tax dollars on lawyers and planners.   Momentum and I have the same expense as Scenario A.

... It doesn't feel like "the right thing to do" but it's rational.

Thanks for participating in this discussion, Owen. It's really great to get information like this from the source.

I'm not going to pretend to know what's the best outcome here. I know Momentum has acquired some goodwill from some users of this board (as well as city planners) for having brought a couple of interesting and thoughtful projects to realization quickly. Are they doing the right thing here? Are they burning that goodwill by exploiting this property at the expense of neighbouring landowners' development potential?

There's a point to be made that they deserve to have their project considered by the city under the rules of the day, even if your case shows an inadequacy in those rules. And I think you're doing the right thing by going to the OMB.

I have a feeling that this case will be a lesson for why the rules need to change for "next time" but too late to change things here. If so, that would be unfortunate. I'd hate to see the Arthur properties end up as another paved parking lot because the site's development potential has been too restricted.