On November 14, 2022, The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) provided its ruling on the Velmar Centre Property, located at 4101 Rutherford Road. As you are aware, the City of Vaughan and the Weston Downs community objected to the Developer’s proposal to redesignate this property from a 4-storey mixed-use building with a FSI of 1.5, to a 7-storey mixed-use building with a FSI of 3.14.
The OLT ruled in favor of the Developer, granting him the right to redevelop the property with a 3-storey building along Velmar and a 6-storey building along Rutherford and abutting the park. The following link will take you to the OLT report:
The OLT report indicates that the City argued that this proposed redevelopment was not needed to meet provincial housing objectives and that the developer’s proposal does not fit with the character of the Weston Downs community. The City argued that granting a low-rise classification to a 6-storey building was precedent setting and should not be allowed.
Unfortunately, with the current provincial government’s mandate to streamline the approval process for developers, it is not a surprise that the OLT rejected the City’s and community’s arguments and instead accepted all of the developer’s arguments for higher density and higher built-form.
The Weston Downs community did not receive the results we wanted; however, the Weston Downs residents should be proud of how they worked together as one voice to better our community. The City of Vaughan Council rarely rejects its planning department’s recommendations, however in this case the community worked effectively as one strong voice to communicate to the City why they needed to turn down this application. Unfortunately, the Ontario government’s housing mandate has created an environment in which the OLT dismissed the City’s and the community’s concerns in favour of the More Homes, Built Faster mandate.