- 1. Tom Vegh's dance of the seven veils: when will he reveal his plans for a new library and seniors' centre
- (Blog)
- ... centre at Hollingsworth Arena. A report from the Town’s planners and approved by senior staff is designed to spike Timid Tom’s plan for a library and seniors’ centre on the site. We are told: “… the ...
- Created on 30 April 2019
- 2. Time for Tom Vegh to open up on his Plans for a new Library and Seniors' Centre
- (Blog)
- ... am keen to follow their progress through the coming Council term. Can you let me know what initiatives you are planning and when? Tom tells me he is diligently working on it. Characteristically, ...
- Created on 05 March 2019
- 3. Newmarket’s Director of Planning, Rick Nethery, breaks silence on how he was "misled" by Clock Tower developer Bob Forres
- (Blog)
- ... Director of Planning “misled” For the first time – outside the Town’s inner circle – Newmarket’s Director of Planning, Rick Nethery, has let it be known he was misled by figures in a key document ...
- Created on 27 May 2018
- 4. Affordable Housing and the Green Lane Secondary Plan
- (Blog)
- The lack of affordable housing in Newmarket and elsewhere in York Region is a big issue that is not going to disappear any time soon. Newmarket’s planners say the 35% affordable target set by the Region ...
- Created on 26 February 2018
- 5. $250,000 earmarked for the Mulock GO Rail Station Secondary Plan
- (Blog)
- Tomorrow (5 February) Newmarket councillors will agree the process for engaging an outside consultant to craft a secondary plan for the area around the proposed new GO Rail station at Mulock Drive. The ...
- Created on 04 February 2018
- 6. Metrolinx, Tony Van Trappist and the 2041 Draft Transportation Plan
- (Blog)
- Back Story: Metrolinx is in the middle of a big consultation on its 2041 Draft Transportation Plan. Newmarket is hosting a public meeting for the York Region area and last night I wander along to the Community ...
- Created on 09 November 2017
- 7. Huge new development planned at Deerfield Road, just off Davis Drive
- (Blog)
- The Rose Corporation - the people behind the King George School Lofts and Town Homes - are planning a huge new development off Davis Drive at 175 Deerfield Road, Newmarket. The 4.4 acre development ...
- Created on 10 May 2017
- 8. Forrest unveils new last minute plans for Clock Tower giving it the highest density in Newmarket
- (Blog)
- This morning (Wednesday 3 May) Bob Forrest presented to the OMB prehearing new plans for his Clock Tower development. The Town's counsel, Leo Longo, received them on Monday evening (1 May). The rest of ...
- Created on 03 May 2017
- 9. When Secret Plans Unravel
- (Blog)
- Just days before the OMB pre-hearing on the Clock Tower we know there has been deception on a grand scale. We have all been led up the garden path. Was it just a rogue planning department with its ...
- Created on 29 April 2017
- 10. Let's knock down Main Street but keep the facades - that's good heritage planning. ...
- (Blog)
- The casual demolition of irreplaceable historic commercial buildings - including one dating from the mid 1840s - represents "good heritage planning" according to Ira Kagan, the lawyer who will be presenting ...
- Created on 27 April 2017
- 11. Can the OMB - on an appeal by a developer - order the Town of Newmarket to make its own land available to that developer to facilitate a development that has been denied by the municipality in its role ...
- (Blog)
- ... In it, CIM Developments Inc are appealing the failure of the Town of Richmond Hill to amend the Official Plan to change the existing designation of the land CIM wants to develop from "Neighbourhood Commercial" ...
- Created on 24 April 2017
- 12. Newmarket's Planning Director, Rick Nethery, knew "comprehensive" staff report on the Clock Tower was misleadi
- (Blog)
- The report written by the Town's planning staff that went before councillors on 28 November 2016 contained key information which was known at the time by the Director of Planning to be bogus and misleading. ...
- Created on 10 April 2017
- 13. Looking for an interesting opportunity? York Regional Council is in the market for planning advisers.
- (Blog)
- York Region is to set up a Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) to consider and provide advice to Council on "key Regional planning matters". But where will its members come from? What kind of person would ...
- Created on 13 February 2017
- 14. Public Engagement in the Planning Process
- (Blog)
- The Town's Planning Department is reviewing the way it deals with development applications to encourage greater participation and engagement by the public. This initiative comes not a moment too soon. ...
- Created on 05 February 2017
- 15. Forrest launches appeal to OMB with his lawyer, Ira Kagan, claiming the seven storey apartment block "represents good heritage planning and good planning in general"
- (Blog)
- ... variation were rejected by councillors on 5 December 2016. "Good planning" Are you serious? There is nothing in Ira Kagan's letter that comes as a surprise. Even his contention that the proposed seven ...
- Created on 27 January 2017
- 16. The Clock Tower: a case study in a broken and deformed planning system
- (Blog)
- ... from councillors and the public. Where was the man in charge, the Director of Planning, Rick Nethery? The developer, Bob Forrest, who gamed the system. He believes he can make things happen "by leveraging ...
- Created on 06 December 2016
- 17. Colleen Forrest rejects planners' compromise on Clock Tower
- (Blog)
- Colleen Forrest, Bob's wife, will be asking councillors on Monday evening to reject the recommendations from the Town's own planners on the Clock Tower and "support our original application". Delicious! ...
- Created on 24 November 2016
- 18. Town's planners rely on legal loophole to get approval for Forrest's Clock Tow
- (Blog)
- ... say no. Emphatically. It they accept the recommendations of their planning staff they will be are relying on a lacuna in the law - and some fancy footwork - to subvert the intention of the Town' ...
- Created on 20 November 2016
- 19. Town's Planners recommend approval for Forrest's condo ...
- (Blog)
- The Town's Planning staff are recommending approval for Bob Forrest's condo in the heart of the Heritage Conservation District in Main Street. (See agenda items 3 and 24) We are told Forrest's re-submitted ...
- Created on 17 November 2016
- 20. Why is Michael Di Biase still Chair of Planning and Economic Development at York Region?
- (Blog)
- ... this series of events makes jaw-dropping reading. At the time I called on Biase to volunteer to give up three month's pay from York Region and stand down as Chair of Planning and Economic Development ...
- Created on 14 November 2016
- 21. Clock Tower planning application stays at 7 storeys
- (Blog)
- Bob Forrest’s planning application for the Clock Tower which goes to the Town’s Committee of the Whole on 28 November 2016 will be in exactly the same form as the application that went before the second ...
- Created on 26 October 2016
- 22. New Secondary Plan means more people and more high density buildings on Mulock Drive
- (Blog)
- ... Express Rail. This means a new Secondary Plan for the Mulock area with work starting in 2017. I support the new GO Rail station at Mulock for a thousand reasons (which I needn’t go into here) but, ...
- Created on 06 October 2016
- 23. King George School plans and elevations
- (Blog)
- The drawings and elevations of the proposed development at the old school site are now available. You can check them out here. Comment will follow. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Created on 03 October 2016
- 24. Plans released for proposed King George School development
- (Blog)
- ... into 11 apartments. If the development goes ahead as planned it means the loss of open space and much more intensive land use – something which leading opinion formers such the Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, ...
- Created on 30 September 2016
- 25. Peter’s Plan gets the cold shoulder from the BIA
- (Blog)
- To the BIA* meeting at the Community Centre in Doug Duncan Drive to hear Ward 5 hopeful, Peter Geibel, tell the downtown’s business people why Bob Forrest should relocate his planned Clock Tower development ...
- Created on 21 September 2016
- 26. The role of Tim Hortons in the planning process in Newmarket
- (Blog)
- Tim Hortons has an important role in the planning process in Newmarket. It is a neutral location where developers can meet individual councillors and talk about their pet projects over a cup of coffee ...
- Created on 21 May 2016
- 27. Clock Tower: Plan for Town Parking under Market Square abandoned
- (Blog)
- Plans to extend the proposed underground garage at the Clock Tower to allow for municipal parking were explored by councillors last year before being abandoned. The Forrest proposal, currently before ...
- Created on 21 May 2016
- 28. Newmarket’s Secondary Plan. Seven years from start to finish.
- (Blog)
- The appeal against Newmarket’s Urban Centres Secondary Plan (OPA10) will not be settled at the OMB until January 23, 2017 – almost seven years after the whole tortuous and flawed process began. Newmarket’s ...
- Created on 19 May 2016
- 29. Deputations and Committee Clash over Clock Tower Plans
- (Blog)
- ... to the district’s historic character.” Newmarket Heritage Advisory Committee chair, Atholl Hart, whose Committee earlier this month also rejected the Forrest plans, spoke movingly and eloquently about ...
- Created on 18 April 2016
- 30. Forrest's Clock Tower plans blow a hole in Town's parking standar
- (Blog)
- The much anticipated report by the Town’s planners on Bob Forrest’s proposed Clock Tower development has now been published. The report goes to the Committee of the Whole on 18 April 2016. You can read ...
- Created on 09 April 2016
- 31. Heritage Committee throws out Forrest’s plan for 7 storey apartment block in heart of historic downtown
- (Blog)
- Newmarket’s Heritage Advisory Committee this evening unanimously rejected plans by developer Bob Forrest to build an out-of-place apartment block at the Clock Tower in the heart of the historic downtown. ...
- Created on 05 April 2016