John Lindsay and the Minnow Lake Restoration Group had their Kingsway Entertainment District appeal dismissed earlier this month on what Lindsay is calling "technicalities."
The group received notice from the LPAT (Local Planning Appeal Tribunal) recently that the appeal had been dismissed on motion by other parties.
"It would appear that the decision was based on technicalities, as interpreted by the Tribunal, and by an initial 'error'," said Lindsay in an email.
While the decision to dismiss Lindsay and the Minnow Lake group's appeal was sprawled out over a more than 20-page report, Lindsay believes that it was a clerical error that tripped him up.
According to section 17 of decision, the report reads, "In section 5 of the Appellant’s Form filed by Minnow Lake, only the first box was checked, indicating that the Parking Lot ZBLA was 'Inconsistent with the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) issued under subsection 3 (1 of the Planning Act'. Minnow Lake has, accordingly, not advanced its appeal upon the grounds that the instrument, as amended, fails to conform with, or conflicts with either a provincial plan or an applicable official plan."
Lindsay says that he was advised by the since disbanded LPAT help centre to check off only the one box.
"I had intended to check other relevant, or so I thought, boxes but this was considered by the help centre to be not necessary - too bad," said Lindsay.
"Initially, the LPAT had declared the Minnow Lake appeal to be valid and had indicated they wanted our expert witness, Mr. Brad Bowman, to appear based on his sworn affidavit statement (attached), which he will not now be able to elaborate upon or to and take part in the proceedings."
The basis of the Minnow Lake Restoration Group's appeal is down to two main sticking points - concerns over the threat of increased salt pollution in Ramsey Lake, since the parking lot of the Kingsway Entertainment District would be located within the lake's watershed, and the size of the parking lot and road, namely traffic and transportation concerns.
"To quote from the report: 'the proposed Kingsway development, including a new arena, hotel and casino, is planned to cover a portion of the Significant Groundwater Recharge Area (SGRA)'" said Lindsay.
"This is especially evident in the proposed Kingsway development where much of the proposed parking is outside of the SGRA but storm water is proposed to be conveyed to a SWM facility in the SGRA" and “The main concern will be chloride loading to the groundwater as a result of salt application for winter maintenance. Additionally, where feasible, water quality controls should be designed upstream of the SGRAs."
In their dismissal of Lindsay's appeal, and despite his belief the dismissal is based on a technicality, the LPAT stated that the concerns put forward were largely opinions and apprehensions, and failed to connect the dots between various concerns.
"Put into somewhat more colloquial terms, as a Bill 139 Appeal, Minnow Lake has failed in its Appeal to 'connect the dots' between the various concerns, opinions and apprehensions about salt pollution and traffic and transportation, and the manner in which Council considered information when making its decision, to the simple, but penultimate, question of why the Parking Lot Bylaw is inconsistent with the PPS," said the report.
"The Tribunal is thus unable to conclude that Minnow Lake’s Notice of Appeal and submitted Case Synopsis, upon the existing Record of evidence, as they provide the required explanations under s. 19.0.2, discloses that the Parking Lot By-law is inconsistent with the PPS. Pursuant to s. 34(25)2 of the Act, the Tribunal is therefore of the opinion that the explanations provided by Minnow Lake, as required by subsection 19.0.2 of the Act do not disclose that the Parking Lot By-law is inconsistent with the policies of the PPS identified by Minnow Lake."
Lindsay expressed his disappointment in the decision and remains insistent that the KED is a threat to Ramsey Lake.
"This is most unfortunate as the just released SubWatershed Study specifically identifies the Kingsway location of the development, and large proposed parking area to be a threat to the nearby 'Significant Groundwater Recharge Area' of Lake Ramsey," said Lindsay, who says he's not finished fighting for the health of the lake.
"We regret we will be unable to express our concerns, which we believe to be those of our citizens, at the LPAT hearing, however, we will continue to advocate in the hope and belief that the environmental interests of the majority will prevail despite efforts by those who would serve their own narrow agendas without regard to the consequences," said Lindsay.
"I think it is incumbent on our elected representatives and indeed all citizens to take all factors into consideration with respect to this matter and in particular those related to the water quality of Lake Ramsey, source of drinking water for tens of thousands of our residents and also the threat to aquatic life which could destroy the recreational value of the waterbody not to mention property values."
