Ontario Construction News staff writer
Innisfil council has voted to oppose an appeal involving a proposed condominium development at Cooks Bay Marina, setting the stage for a battle before the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).
The decision came after council met behind closed doors with staff before its Aug. 12 public meeting and is the latest development in a proposal that has been under discussion for more than four years.
“This is unusual for us to come out of the closed session with a recommendation, but this is an unusual application,” Mayor Lynn Dollin said after the vote. “The public meeting for this application was held in 2022, prior to any of this council sitting here, so the applicant has now appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal and while we cannot divulge any discussions with external councils.
“We wanted to just let this council have the opportunity to vote on this motion.”
The company that owns Cooks Bay Marina filed an appeal in June, arguing that the town had failed to make a decision on its application within the required time frame.
Atef Salama, a director of the Ontario-numbered company behind the proposal, said the developer had waited years for a decision while continuing to work with the town.
“At this point somebody needs to make a decision,” Salama said in an Innisfil Today story. “To be in this limbo for four years is not acceptable from an investor point of view.
“We have a right to appeal it. We had a right almost two years ago, but we decided to continue working with the town instead of going that route.”
The proposal originally included a seven-storey, 74-unit mixed-use resort residential condominium building and a five-storey hotel with 75 rooms and 11 resort condominium suites along with retail space, a restaurant, conference facilities and five three-storey townhouses with connections to boat slips.
However, the most recent plan proposes a four-storey mixed-use building containing 35 resort condominium suites for seasonal accommodation and commercial space, along with five three-storey townhouse units with boat-slip connections.
According to a report prepared by the developer’s planner, Innovative Planning Solutions, the changes were intended to address concerns about the size of the project.
“Significant modifications have been made to reduce height, scale, and density — most notably the reduction in height of the buildings and the removal of the hotel component,” the report states.
Salama told Innisfil Today the town wanted to start back at the beginning of the design and that request is unacceptable after years of planning.
Ward councillor Fred Drodge, who represents the Gilford area, said town staff had spent considerable time working with the developer in an effort to address concerns raised by the community.
“I do want to recognize that Town staff put in a lot of time trying to get this to a place that better reflects what the community has been saying and those discussions have been going on for quite some time,” Drodge wrote on social media after the appeal was filed.
“With the appeal filed, this moves into a legal process through the OLT. Because of that, there’s only so much I can comment on publicly,” Drodge said.
