Lynwood Charlton Group Home, OMB Hearing

John Gladki provided expert testimony at an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing regarding an application by Lynwood Charlton Centre to the City of Hamilton to rezone lands to permit a residence with eight beds providing mental health services and supports in a supervised setting for adolescent females. The site is designated residential in the City’s Official Plan and zoned residential in the City’s comprehensive zoning bylaw. At the time, the Hamilton Zoning Bylaw limited the location of “Residential Care Facilities” to within a radius of 300 metres of each other. Council initially denied the application on the basis that “it would further aggravate the existing over-intensification of residential care facilities within the central City” and because it “would entrench an undesirable institutional use” in a residential area. Mr Gladki provided evidence on behalf of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), which was granted party status at the hearing, in support of the application. His evidence focused on Provincial Policy, human rights and the inconsistency of the City’s support for affordable and special needs housing in its Official Plan and its position on the application. The Board agreed with the evidence of the Applicant and the OHRC and ruled in favour of the application.