Fate of Blair Road homes to be decided by Ontario Land Tribunal

City council's decision to refuse a 32-unit housing project on Blair Road is headed to a showdown at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). 

Owners Arbent and Setmir Faikovski have hired a Hamilton law firm to push ahead with a plan to build two stacked townhouse buildings with 32 units at 220 and 22 Blair Road.

It means the fate of five families living in a single-detached home and four-unit apartment building on the properties will be decided by an adjudicator instead of city staff or council.

In March, planning staff recommended council approve an official plan amendment and site specific zoning to allow more than double the number of units per hectare than what's currently allowed in the city's "grossly outdated" official plan.

But council couldn't stomach the thought of displacing the five families living in homes that would have to be demolished to make way for the project and, in a 7-1 vote, they refused the proposal.

One Cambridge councillor called the proposal "very disturbing."

Another said she couldn't abide by the idea of building more homes at the expense of affordable ones.

The mayor said it would be a shameful moment for the province and tribunal if an adjudicator gave the developer the go-ahead.

And Coun. Adam Cooper didn't mince words when he said he "absolutely despises" the influence the tribunal has over land use planning in the city.

The appeal claims council's decision "fails to have appropriate regard to matters of provincial interest" and "fails to meet the intent and purpose" of both the city's and the Region of Waterloo's official plans.

A date for a hearing has yet to be set.