The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is broken.
Low-density suburban sprawl is eating Ontario farmland. The lack of appropriate mid-level and high density in cities hampers transit development, limits housing options and further encourages sprawl on the periphery of our cities and towns. Many blame this condition on the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). They argue that as an unelected body, the OMB usurps citizen power by making decisions about how our cities and countryside grow, because their development plans are substituted for those of elected municipal councils. Fortunately, the Ontario government is currently reviewing the scope and effectiveness of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).
Do you think the OMB can be repaired? Does it need a minor makeover or a major rebuild?
Join us for this invite-only event featuring an expert panel to further the conversation, ask questions and share your observations on why OMB reform is needed now.
Space is limited. Register Today
Free to attend
Panellist Information Below
Monday February 13th, 2017
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave, University of Toronto
Reception at 6:00 p.m.
Panel discussion 7:00 p.m.
Panellist Information Below
Panellists
Paul Bedford, FCIP, RPP, is a Member and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners with 45 years of experience in urban planning. As Toronto’s Chief City Planner for eight years, he championed numerous innovative planning strategies with Jane Jacobs for the King-Spadina and King-Parliament districts, a new city-wide Official Plan and a principles plan for the Central Waterfront called “Making Waves” that was the basis for the creation of Waterfront Toronto. Since his retirement, he was appointed Adjunct Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. He serves on the National Capital Commission’s Advisory Committee on Planning, Design and Realty, the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel, the University of Toronto Design Review Panel, and is a Senior Associate of the Canadian Urban Institute.
David Donnelly is one of Canada’s leading environmental lawyers and an award-winning advocate for smart growth. He has represented public interest groups and ratepayers in some of Ontario’s key environmental battles, including many Ontario Municipal Board hearings. David frequently advises municipal governments and green developers regarding green building and community design standards. David appears in court and before tribunals regularly to protect greenspace, aboriginal cultural heritage and to prosecute environmental offences. Prior to practicing law, David was a professional planner and the executive director of Environmental Defence from 1988 to 1996.
As Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, Jennifer Kessmaat is committed to creating places where people flourish. Over the past decade Jennifer has been repeatedly recognized by the Canadian Institute of Planners and OPPI for her innovative work in Canadian municipalities. Most recently, Jennifer was named as one of the most influential people in Toronto by Toronto Life magazine and one of the most powerful people in Canada by MacLeans Magazine. Jennifer is the 2016 recipient of the President’s Award of Excellence, Canadian Institute of Planners. Her current priorities include implementing a divisional strategic plan, leading an Official Plan review process, refining public consultation to provide more access to city building conversations, a renewed focus on evidence based transit planning, midrise development on the City of Toronto’s many avenues, and overseeing development review for over 4000 applications annually.
Rodney Wilts, JD, LEED AP, is a partner in Canada’s greenest real estate development firm, Windmill Developments. Rodney has played an active role in many of Windmill’s previous landmark projects, including The Currents (LEED Platinum), Dockside Green (LEED Platinum), The Vento (LEED Platinum), along with current projects The Eddy, Cathedral Hill, Union Lofts and Whitewater Village. He both sourced the deal and led the master planning of Zibi, a zero-carbon, One Planet endorsed community that has been recognized for excellence by the American Planning Association, the Canadian Institute of Planners and the International Society of City and Regional Planners. Prior to joining Windmill, Rodney was an environmental lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, and founder of Canada’s first green building supply company.
MODERATOR
Ken Greenberg is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants. For over four decades he has played a pivotal role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe, focusing on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto where he an Adjunct Professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. He is also a co-founder and a Visiting Scholar at the City Building Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto. A frequent writer for periodicals, he is the author of Walking Home: the Life and Lessons of a City Builder published by Random House.