Council Meeting Wednesday October 2, 2024 at 9:30am
Meeting Agenda: Revised Meeting Agenda
Watch Meeting: Meeting Video (2hrs 7min)
Council Members attending in person:
West, Chan, DiPaola, Davidson, Thompson, Liu, Cui, Shiu
Regrets:
Cilevitz
Recap:
All agenda items were moved to next week's Council meeting with the exception of the following two items.
the Request for Direction regarding the Completion of Comprehensive Official Plan Update and Secondary Plan Approach that was deferred to the October 9th Council meeting in order to give staff time to draft a briefing note to answer council members questions.
Much of the discussion was around exempting the Sheraton Parkway lands from the Official Plan Update. The Sheraton wants to build one of the largest suburban hotel and convention centres in the 905 area on it's lands at the Highway 7 and Leslie area . Exempting the proposal from the Official Plan Update would speed up the development process for this project.
the member motion by Councillor DiPaola regarding the City entering into an agreement with Jolt to install electric vehicle charging billboards.
Council members had concerns about this being a sole sourced contract.
Councillor Davidson asked staff what's being done in terms of an overall EV strategy for the city.
Staff response: There is already an approved capital budget in 2024
to launch the city's electric vehicle strategy and staff was intending to report back the end of Q2 of 2025. In their opinion while the spirit of the motion is well intended it's premature at this time given there's a lot of opportunity to investigate whatever else might be out there in Industry right now. Advancing this particular motion undermines due process as well as there's the opportunity that this motion would conflict with our future strategy. The strategy is to investigate not only one vendor but any vendor and what the city's best approaches so it receives the best value for its approach.
Agenda Items Include:
The City has made significant strides and progress on its Official Plan Update (“OP Update”), with seven out of ten conformity amendments approved and in various stages of implementation;
Since the OP Update work was initiated, there has been an unprecedented number of Provincial legislative changes, necessitating a recalibration of the approach to the completion of the OP Update;
The remaining components of the OP Update will focus on addressing Provincial conformity requirements, consolidating York Region Official Plan (“ROP”) policies into the City’s Official Plan, and updating major policy areas.
The comprehensive OP Update is anticipated to be completed by the end of Q2 of 2026;
In order to facilitate the City’s evolving city structure and to help meet the City’s housing targets, staff are seeking Council’s direction to review and update the height and density permissions for the Regional Mixed-Use Corridor designation through the OP Update; and,
To complete the policy framework for all major centres and corridors, staff are requesting that Council direct staff to undertake the preparation of two additional Secondary Plans along Highway 7. Specifically, the East Beaver Creek Local Centre Secondary Plan will begin in 2026 and the Bathurst Local Centre Secondary Plan will begin in 2027.
Mon Sheong Foundation is proposing the construction of a 10 storey long term care facility and a 38 storey senior's rental apartment building;
Staff is in the process of undertaking an expedited review in order to facilitate the proposed development and to meet the applicant’s timing to secure funding from the Province of Ontario;
The applicant’s land holdings are subject to two (2) Minister’s Zoning Orders, which permit the proposed development on the property;
O. Reg.90/23, is an enhanced Minister’s Zoning Order (eMZO) that exempts the proposed development from Site Plan Control under the Planning Act and the City’s Site Plan Control;
the purpose of this report is to seek Council’s authorization to execute Development Agreement and any other agreements as may be necessary between the City and the Mon Sheong Foundation to facilitate the construction of the proposed development.
The report recommends a consolidation and update of the City’s five animal
regulation by-laws provisioning the following based on benchmarking, consultation and public feedback:
updated and modernized wording of provisions to address identified current issues
amended provisions regarding dog licensing, regulation, and ownership limits
new provisions to support cat licensing, reduction in ownership limits and trespassing supporting the City’s Bird-Friendly status
expansion of designated Dangerous Dog criteria, and additional requirements of Dangerous Dog Owners
inclusion of designated violations for AMPS enforcement
That the appropriate City of Richmond Hill staff report back to the October 16th
Committee of the Whole with a strategy on how Richmond Hill can enter into an
agreement with Jolt to install electric vehicle charging billboards on city property
at multiple locations.
Public Comments:
The public may submit written correspondence regarding agenda items by email to clerks@richmondhill.ca. Written correspondence must be submitted by 12 p.m. (noon) one business day before the meeting. Comments submitted will be provided to all Members of Council, are considered as public information and will be included on the public agenda posted to the City’s website.
Delegations:
Any person who wishes to speak to Council on agenda items must pre-register with the Office of the Clerk by 12 p.m. (noon) one business day before the meeting. Applications to appear as a delegation can be submitted by email to clerks@richmondhill.ca or by using the on-line application form. Delegations can be in person, or electronically by video conference or telephone. The Office of the Clerk will provide instructions on appearing as a delegation.