Meeting on design guidelines sparks anger
By Bill Rea

Nobleton residents have been assured that there are going to be guidelines in place to control the architectural design of the Noble Ridge subdivision being developed by Slokker Canada.

That assurance was given again to people attending a public session in Nobleton recently. What they didn't get was the chance to actually see the guidelines, and that made a number of them angry.

The session, according to advertisements in the local press, was "a public workshop . . . being held to present the guidelines and obtain public input."

No guidelines were presented, and most of the information provided dealt with the process involved in coming up with guidelines.

Nancy Hopkinson, of Nobleton Alert Residents' Association, was not pleased.

"We have not seen anything," she charged. "We cannot make comments."

"This workshop isn't a workshop," she added. "The public input can only be zero."

Gaspare Ritacca, senior planner with the Township, said copies of the guidelines are available at the municipal offices in King City, and people can come in and review them.

Steven Wimmer of The MBTW Group, who along with Boyd Montgomery, director of design control with Watchorn Architect Inc., is a control architect with the project, told her they wanted to explain the process at the meeting, but Hopkinson said what she had heard sounded good, but she had seen nothing.

Wimmer added the guidelines are contained in a "technical working document," aimed mainly at architects and builders.

Ritacca told the audience architectural control guidelines was one of the changes to the plan that resulted from the community liaison process, which ran through much of 2005. That plan was eventually endorsed by Township council and approved by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).

Wimmer outlined the process for coming up with the guidelines, which he said had been time-tested and let the municipality make sure the expectations of the public are achieved.

He also said builders don't like them, but they have the advantage of letting builders and developers know what's expected of them from the start.