Victor Castro

The appellant appealed the Municipality's Shoreline Preservation By-law, which introduced a 30-metre setback and natural vegetative buffer requirement around waterbodies to conform with the updated County Official Plan.

The appellant argued the by-law was overly prescriptive and unreasonably restricted land use.

The Tribunal found that the by-law was consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement and conformed to the County Official Plan, which explicitly requires a 30-metre setback and vegetative buffer to protect water quality and ecological functions.

The Tribunal allowed the appeal in part only to add a definition of 'vegetative buffer' and a provision permitting minor maintenance and pruning, but otherwise dismissed the appeal, concluding the by-law represented good planning and appropriately balanced public environmental interests with private property rights.

The appellants appealed a Director's Order requiring them to submit an application for a Permit to Take Water (PTTW) for an engineered dam constructed on their property.

The appellants argued that the dam did not "take" water but merely received it, and that it was constructed for flood control and wetland conservation, thereby exempting it from the PTTW requirement.

The Tribunal accepted expert evidence that the dam impounds more than 50,000 litres of water per day, meeting the statutory definition of a water taking under the Ontario Water Resources Act.

The Tribunal found no applicable exemptions and upheld the requirement to apply for a PTTW, though it removed a condition requiring the appellants to submit a notarized agreement with a neighbouring golf course as part of the application.