"Wasted Days and Wasted Nights"... same old tune!!

What an eerie feeling heading into the bowels of IRAC last night to finish off another silly IRAC hearing... it was quite a show yesterday and I'm sure Freddie Fender would have been able to hum a few more bars of the "blues" at the end of the night had he been there...

The foolishness all started around 9:30 am when the 2 lady appellants were looking to have the hearing extended two weeks so they could review a few worthless documents that the City's solicitor gave them earlier in the week.... so the Commission had a big Pow-Wow and decided to give the ladies a few hours to review the documents and rescheduled the hearing for 1:30 pm at which time it gave me the opportunity to head over to our law firm and commence a civil action against the two ladies for filing such a frivolous claim... and to my surprise (and I didn't say delight) the document server actually served notice to the appellants a few minutes before the hearing recommenced which certainly was a little tacky... but it shouldn't have been a surprise to the ladies as I had previously let them see a draft of the action at our office a few weeks previous to the event but they "milked" it up and put on quite a front for "natural justice"... had they not tried to continue to "postpone" the process we probably would not have commenced the action.

In any event the show continued and the ladies presented their case that our proposed hotel was going to cause snow removal problems, block the sun from the front of their homes at certain periods, and that the City was in a conflict (or more like a conspiracy) as the City owns 15% of Charlottetown Development Corporation so they "must" be in a conflict... they didn't have anyone to support their claims or they didn't provide any new evidence other than pass over a few of my blog posts where I beat up on IRAC... as if that was some startling new revelation as I've been pounding away at that for years and I'm obviously not getting anywhere when the current Government sends in what I believe is a socialist or communist (I really can't make up my mind) to be the new Vice Chair...

After the ladies were done the City gave a rather good explanation as to how the application process took place and it was clear that the City took every effort to see the rules were followed... the notice of the project was mailed out to 72 property owners within the neighbourhood for their comments... the application then went through a Heritage Board process and meeting... then the application went to Planning Board for approval... and then professional City staff provided a full report to City Council who, like all the others, unanimously approved the application for our development.. by the time the City's expert gave her testimony it was time for supper so a good deal of time was spent by IRAC staff figuring out the complexities of how to reconvene the meetings for 7:00 pm when the Mall doors might be closed...

In any event I got to come back that evening and get some clarification from the City's development officer that there is absolutely "no bylaw" relating to "shadowing" a building which seemed to be of some interest to the Commissioners... I also had an opportunity to give APM's side of our approach in trying to develop a project in the Downtown Core that is in keeping with the objectives of the City's Official Plan and provides Jobs, Investment and Choice to our Community...

Well it may have been all for not as I got the big stare down and lecture from The Right Honourable Vice-Chair Singer Songwriter Allan Rankin that I was "out of line" in defending my right to invest in my Community and he was heading for the Supreme Court... it's the same old tune from The Don't Get Ahead Gang http://www.allanrankin.com/songs/onesong.php3?number=19 and maybe Wes the Cat and I can write them a new tune....