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When a brand new city council voted last December against allowing a low-rise apartment to be built in Vanier, councillors were warned their decision could be challenged at the Ontario Municipal Board, and that it would cost taxpayers money in legal fees.

Both those things turned out to be true, and the OMB has rejected council’s decision, allowing the building to go ahead. The city paid $13,000 to fight the OMB appeal.

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Only weeks before council rejected the amendment, staff recommended at the city planning committee that the proposal be approved. Councillors were warned that if there was an appeal, an outside planner would have to be retained to represent the city at the OMB, and the money was “not available within existing resources.”

The OMB came down on the side of the developer, as is so often the case when council votes against the city’s own planning staff. In an eight-page ruling released Oct. 6, the tribunal called the testimony supporting the Lindenlea Apartments Inc. proposal for a 20-unit building to replace two houses at 67 and 71 Marquette Ave. “compelling.”