VICTORY FOR LOCAL DEMOCRACY THREATENED

Stratford won the OMB decision. Official Plan Amendment 10 is official. OMB forced Stratford to pay legal fees incurred protecting our Official Plan. Walmart is Again Disrespecting the spirit and intent of our Official Plan by taking advantage of zoning loophole and building in East area of Strtaford.

READ AND CONTRIBUTE TO 'If You Love Stratford' FOR INFORMATION, NEWS, VIEWS AND IDEAS

*PROTECTING OUR SPECIAL DOWN TOWN AND HEART OF OUR COMMUNITY*

*LOCAL ECONOMY VERSUS CORPORATE LOOTING*

*SHINING A LIGHT ON WHAT MAKES STRATFORD SPECIAL*

*CONTROLLING SPRAWL*

*QUALITY OF LIFE*


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Selections From OMB Decision: Page 28, 29 and 30

Mr. Annand expressed his professional opinion that an Ontario Street East commercial Area location has greater potential for the recapture of the household shopping dollars that he indicated are currently leaving Stratford for centres like Kitchener-Waterloo and Woodstock, than would a West End Commercial Area location (Exhibit 53, page 27, conclusion vi). Mr. Annand told the Board that his research shows that people generally prefer to do all the weekly family shopping in one location if at all possible. The Kitchener-Waterloo area’s Sunrise Centre on Highways 7 & 8, with its new large format Walmart store, was used as an example of such an attractive one-stop shopping destination. The Avonwood lands represent, he testified, an opportunity for the Ontario Street East Commercial Area to develop into a shopping destination in the order of the Sunrise Centre.

Although much was made by Mr. Annand and Avonwood’s land use planning witnesses (Messrs. Clarkson and Goldberg) on the benefits of an east end over a west end location with respect to recapturing retail dollar outflow, beyond some travel time estimates (Exhibit 152) prepared by Mr. Clarkson that in the end only succeeded in showing that no place in Stratford is less than 10 minutes drive from anyplace else, no data were presented to me that would justify Avonwood’s contention. The Board was told by Avonwood’s witnesses that regardless of travel distances, the main point is that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which Avonwood suggested is the world’s most successful retailer, is the best arbiter of what is a suitable location for one of its stores. And, for its proposed Stratford store, Wal-Mart Canada Corp. has selected Avonwood’s east end site. As noted above, no one from Wal-Mart Canada Corp. was called as a witness and as a consequence this evidence was not tested by cross-examination.


The City and Avonwood’s planning witnesses differed in their view of the land use implications of an east end versus a west end location. Avonwood’s land use planner – Mr. Clarkson, whose views were supported by Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Parsons –stated that it is “bad land use planning” to try to force a retailer to go where it does not want to go and where the community is not prepared for it to go. Mr. Sorensen contended that the West End Commercial Area has been planned for space extensive and large format retail uses since at least 1993 with the adoption of the City’s 1993 Official Plan, then re-confirmed with the adoption of OPA 10, and that this is good planning in the context of the City. ... With respect to the recapture of shopping dollars now spent outside Stratford by City residents: Messrs. Annand and Parsons were of the opinion that an Ontario Street East Commercial Area location is preferable to a location in the West End Commercial Area for the recapture of outflow dollars. However, no evidence was presented by Avonwood to support the testimony of Mr. Annand and Mr. Parsons. The City’s witness, Mr. Dee, on the other hand said that the east end and west end locations would be equally effective in recapturing outflow dollars. After considering the testimony of all the witnesses on this question, I preferred the opinion of the City’s witness since I was not given any hard evidence that showed any difference in the capability of either the west end or the east end to recapture outflow dollars.

Colin Hefferon

No comments:

Post a Comment