Unfortunately, county only awarded $5,000 in costs

Editor:

Once again I find myself writing in regard to the letter to the editor by Donna Baylis in Last week’s Echo. I don’t wish to banter back and forth in the Echo, however I do find it necessary to provide the correct information on this issue.

Throughout the entire process all parties were quite aware of who the registered owner of the property was, which has no relevance on granting a permit to cut trees. This is and still remains private property and only the butternut tree is a protected species not the entire forest.   

Although the owner (Tecumseth Estates) had filed an application for “Plan for Subdivision” quite sometime in the past (this is common practice when developers buy multiple acres of property), this does not in any way guarantee development will happen.  The said property did not have an approved site plan and as a matter of fact the property lies outside the development area and is zoned agricultural and would not be eligible for development under the current municipal and county Official Plans and provincial land use regulations. The application for subdivision was withdrawn as a condition set by the county prior to issuing the tree-cutting permit in March of 2015, long before AWARE Simcoe filed their appeal. Other conditions of the permit included reduced size of the cutting area, Environmental Impact Study and replanting of some Butternut Trees. All governing parties, New Tecumseth Planning, Simcoe County Planning, NVCA, Ministry of Natural Resources agreed to the conditions of the permit. The purpose of the tree cutting was to enable the landowner to expand agricultural operations on the property. The landowner met all the conditions of the permit prior to commencing the cut.

AWARE Simcoe filed their appeal against the County and injunction against the landowner after the public hearings of April 14, 2015 and May 12, 2015 when county council voted to remove the second stop work order.

AWARE Simcoe’s injunction to stop the tree cutting was denied by Justice Eberhard who concluded that the county had not acted improperly and it was at this time that AWARE Simcoe abandoned their appeal against Simcoe County.

I will confirm county’s legal expense was $23,485 and county did apply for total cost recovery that was incurred due to the legal actions of AWARE Simcoe.  Unfortunately, Justice Eberhard only awarded the county $5,000 in costs leaving a balance of $18,485 to be burdened to the taxpayer, thanks to AWARE Simcoe. We are yet to collect the $5,000 court-ordered money owing to the county.

I find it quite ironic that Ms. Baylis criticizes county for willing to contribute the recovered funds towards tree planting in the area.

Simcoe County Forests is the largest municipal forest in the province in access of 32,000 acres, which is well managed and produces over $1 million a year in revenues. Perhaps AWARE Simcoe members could write something positive about that.

Barry Burton,

Deputy Mayor, Clearview Township.