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    A sewer trench planned for a Tree Preservation Area that a developer had promised to set aside in Mississauga will destroy at least a dozen rare trees and affect the viability of dozens more.  A servicing easement contained in the original by-law and overlooked by co-appellants Therese Taylor and Susan Karrandjas at the OMB hearing last year means that the developer H& R has the legal right to create such a pathway, said City Solicitor Michal Minkowki.  “It’s hard to believe they are taking this position,” says Taylor who lead the two-year battle to save the one hectare woodland that includes many Shagbark Hickory Trees, a rare Carolinian species, at Britannia and Bidwell Trail, west of Mavis.

    “The settlement agreement that we signed with the landowner included a site plan which depicted the location and the dimensions of the Tree Preservation Area.  In fact when the site plan was initialed, Susan persuaded the landowner to “minimize encroachment as much as feasible.”  There was no indication of a servicing easement or a hole in the Tree Preservation Area.  Never in a million years would we have thought that a City law would allow them to do this,” says Taylor.

    The 120* foot long trench will not only destroy at least a dozen of the rare trees in its path, it will affect the viability of the trees for 10 to 15 feet on both sides of the trench, along the whole length.  “Root loss, root disruption, a drying of the soils, and a local draw down in the water table are inevitable,” says Philip van Wassenaer, the urban forestry consultant who helped in the effort to save the woodland.

    “The Mississauga Site Plan Process is flawed. There’s something wrong if the process allows trenching to occur through an area that has been designated as a Tree Preservation Area,” van Wassenaer says.

    “It’s terribly frustrating for concerned citizens who have been given a big runaround during this entire process. Trying to save our common Natural Resources in Mississauga is not easy at the best of times.  The City needs to have a final site plan with all the pertinent servicing details clearly indicated before they grant approvals, especially where tree preservation areasare affected”  It’s a situation van Wassenaer says he has seen all too often.

    Taylor concurs.  “I naively believed that a Tree Preservation Area (TPA) meant that the trees in the designated area would be preserved, that the TPA was locked. It didn’t occur to me to think they’d cut down rare trees
to put in a sewer.”

    “We did not hire a planner or a lawyer to go over the by-law with a fine tooth comb, because we had a settlement agreement with the landowner that depicted the Tree Preservation Area.  The OMB is supposed to be a forum for citizens to address planning matters,” says Taylor.  In an email to Taylor, City Planner Karen Crouse explains that site plan approval “is a gentleman's agreement between the municipality and land owner respecting the layout of structures and site works on parcel(s) of land.”

    Further, Crouse admitted that “Staff met on several occasions with Fitzwood and its representatives to discuss the appropriate location of the easement.  After much discussion, the easement was placed in the least
disruptive location …”

    “Least disruptive to who or what,” questions Taylor.

    “I have called upon the city planner, the city solicitor, the ward councillor and Mayor Hazel McCallion to support this community and the spirit of the settlement agreement. City Solicitor Minkowki and Councillor George Carlson have made it clear to me that the city is not responsible to enforce the settlement agreement.”

    “It’s simply unacceptable for people who are paid out of the public purse to take the position that they have no responsibility to enforce or abide by a settlement agreement entered into by a developer and members of the public, working in the public interest.  This is particularly so when the members of the public were forced to do the job of the city after it refused to take up its responsibility to protect the urban environment,” an outraged Taylor says.

    “The City is in a position to have a strong voice in the gentleman's agreement and require that the easement be placed somewhere else.  It’s one thing to say that this plan is allowed for in the by-law, but it doesn't mean that it's the only course of action.

     “They have choices and they have chosen to allow a trench to be cut through the Tree Preservation Area.  They could still intervene if they wanted to because the trees are still standing.  So could the landowner Mark Mandelbaum or the developer H&R, for that matter.  They could choose to abide by the spirit of the settlement agreement they made with us rather than pointing to the legal loopholes they may use to cut down more trees.”

*This is a good guess.  It’s the length of the townhouse property.  I have asked the City Planner to confirm the length, but she has not answered my request.

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