More than
two dozen
trees on this Mona Rd.
lot - some of them
estimated to be 100
years old - were
chopped down by the
property owners at the
end of May, in the
midst of an Ontario
Municipal Board
hearing into the matter.
People such as Ed
Troscianczuk (inset)
are pleased the OMB
has now refused to
allow the lot to be
subdivided to create a
new home. |
A Credit Reserve couple who tried a shortcut around
an
Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing will be taking the
long road home. Shawn and Diane Hamilton cut down
100- year old trees on their property during an OMB
hearing into their lot severance request. The OMB
turned down the couple's request to divide the property
near Mona Rd. and Inglewood Dr. into two lots, and
chastised the owners for removing the trees during the
hearing.
An affront to the planning process
The Hamilton's decision to cut down 28 trees on the
property, including seven white pines that were at least
a century old, is "an affront to the planning process in
Ontario," the OMB says. OMB member P.L. Wyger denied
the application to sever the Hamilton's Mona Rd. property
to create a new lot facing on the south side of Inglewood
Dr. The application had been approved by Mississauga's
Committee of Adjustment, but was appealed to the OMB
by neighbours Wallace Kenny and Margot Blight. At the
initial committee of adjustment hearing, the Hamilton's
agent promised no trees would be removed before a site
plan application was approved. The City uses that process
to decide which trees should be preserved. By removing
most of the trees in the midst of the Board appeal, the
Hamilton's circumvented the effectiveness of the tree
preservation process," the board ruled.
Corbasson welcomes ruling
Ward 1 Councillor, Carmen Corbasson, a strong proponent
of a by-law being considered by the City to control cutting
of trees on private property, welcomed the ruling. "The
Board is sending a strong message that 'thou shalt not
circumvent the tree preservation process," Corbasson said
yesterday. Never in her experience, "has someone had -
and I have to use these words - the audacity to go ahead
and remove trees" while the OMB was adjudicating a case
in which tree retention was the key issue, added the councillor.
Board rejects severance
The OMB rejected the severance for several reasons. It
concluded the new lot would not be in character with the
existing area and said the property involved is part of a 11.6
hectare woodlot which includes old growth forest that would
be affected negatively by the development of another home.
Shawn Hamilton told The News he thought the Board ruling
was "a little biased." He said the majority of his neighbors
support his application even after he chopped down the trees.
"I think the Board reacted to my cutting the trees," Hamilton
said. He would not have removed them if his neighbors hadn't
appealed the original severance approval.
Trees removed as a show of force
He repeated his testimony before the board that he was within
his legal rights to remove the trees. "I kept saying it was not a
tree issue and my neighbors kept making it a tree issue,"
Hamilton said yesterday. "So, basically, as a show of force,
I removed the trees." The part of the property where the trees
were located was severely overgrown, he claimed. He spent
two years cleaning out the under storey. The white pine trees
were green only at the top and the potential of falling branches
was a danger to his children Hamilton added.
Few white pine remain
At the hearing, arborist Philip van Wassenaer estimated the
trees removed were between 90-165 years olds. He later told
The News the Hamilton's property is one of only three sites in
the city with second-generation white pine, while only scattered
remnants of white pine remain anywhere in southern Ontario.
Although disappointed with the decision, Hamilton said, "I'll
have to live with it." He plans to re-landscape the area to create
a garden and plant wildflowers. Asked if he intends to reapply
for a severance in future, he said he hopes to develop it, as he
sees fit, in future.
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