Sometimes, you just have to listen to experts

King councillors last week voted to let five subdivision proposals for King City advance to draft approval, with conditions.

And as Councillor Cleve Mortelliti correctly pointed out, some of those conditions are not going to be satisfied easily.

He stated several of these conditions are being imposed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), and he said that can be a very difficult agency for developers to deal with, adding it can stop a proposal in its tracks if it's not satisfied.

He also observed, again quite rightly, that there was really no rational basis for opposing the motions to let the proposals proceed. True, there were some concerns raised from the public during the lengthy deliberations last Monday night, but Mortelliti stressed the recommendations that Township staff put forth were based on the opinion of experts at agencies, like TRCA. If you're going to raise an objection to a development proposal in the face of expert opinion that's supporting it, then you had better have some very sound arguments backing up your position. And the ward councillor for that part of King City stated clearly he didn't have such an argument to offer. As he observed late in the meeting, he might not agree with the conclusions of TRCA experts, but he had no rational arguments to offer to the contrary.

It is a reality that no subdivision proposal will make everyone happy. There were a number of comments made at the meeting that the proposals on the table lacked creativity, although no one made much of an effort to define a creative subdivision.

And we think it's a safe bet that there were some at the meeting who are still wishing that the developers would just go away.

Well, they're not going away, and people in King City have known for some time that development was coming to the area; controlled development, as set out by the King City Community Plan and further contained by the legislative tools that protect the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Provincial Greenbelt.

A lot of work has gone into these proposals, and a lot more expert work has been put into vetting them. At some point, people have to realize that without solid arguments, continued opposition is futile.

We think council articulated that last week.