Update on Negotiations

• webmaster
• August 18, 2014
• Publications

Hey everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your summer. We have been working hard on corporate fundraising for the last month while continuing to tackle a few developing issues on the Jaffari development application. We thought that it might be a good time to give everyone a quick update…

As we have mentioned in our previous updates, the City of Vaughan setup a working group process in February to facilitate discussions between the community, city staff and Jaffari Village. The idea was to get our community’s issues regarding the Jaffari development application out on the table, to discuss these issues in depth and to figure out if the parties were open to some kind of compromise. We had two working group meetings in April and May and then Jaffari cancelled the next few meetings and the process ground to a halt. There were too many people in the room for each session. Tensions ran high. Everyone was frustrated and we kept getting bogged down on the most contentious issues.

After the PTWA community meeting in July, the City Staff and Councillor Sandra Racco proposed a fresh approach. We agreed to start the working group sessions again with a much smaller group with each side being limited to just three people. We came to the meeting prepared for some open and honest discussions around bringing down the height of the buildings, addressing our concerns around density, traffic congestion, parking, the heritage site and the numerous requested exceptions to the zoning and bylaws that specify how this land can be developed.

The good news is that this smaller venue proved to be much more effective and we managed to get through most of the issues while properly understanding each side’s positions on the major issues. The other bit of good news is that the representatives of Jaffari Village were finally open to compromising on a few key areas (i.e. building height) which was definitely a step in the right direction. We ended the first meeting with PTWA tabling a concept sketch which outlined our thoughts on how the land could be developed without negatively impacting the community. The key concepts in our sketch included removing the high rise buildings, bringing down the density, adding more parking, preserving the heritage building, opening up the sports field for public use and adding a nature trail/boardwalk along the conservation lands. The plan was well received by the city staff and Jaffari’s consultants agreed to study our proposal and provide feedback in a few weeks time.

We met again for a second meeting last Friday and we were provided with feedback on our proposal along with some alternative proposals. We will post another update later this week once we have had time to properly digest this new information and are in a better position to comment. We are also planning another community meeting in the September time frame to allow more community input.

We emphasized that we do not have an issue with Jaffari Village developing their land. Jaffari must stick to the zoning and bylaws for their property and develop it in a manner that doesn’t create serious issues for the current residents of our community. Its really that simple. Stay tuned for more information later this week and enjoy the weather!

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