The Fight Over OMB Folly Continues

Back in October we brought up an interesting tale of revenge at the municipal level, North York council overwhelmingly approved a motion (7-2) to name one of the new streets in a development that was approved contrary to the master plan ‘OMB Folly’.  We had a couple comments to that article and most all were in favour of the name change.

Well now time is coming to put shovel to ground and future residents of OMB folly are starting to weigh in on the debate. In The Star its reported that a future resident wrote to Mayor David Miller to request that the name be changed back to its original intended name ‘Connfield Lane.’

“We just felt it was very inappropriate for elected officials to be toying around with people’s investment and purchases in the city,” she said in an interview. “And we felt it was very derogatory to the Ontario Municipal Board.” S

They Mayor is quoted as saying that he didn’t agree with the new name either but that she needed to speak to John Filion the councilor who first came up with the motion. “Filion said he won’t support a switch. He considers the matter closed after the community council voted 7-2 to recommend OMB Folly, and city council approved it, 14-13.” S

Barring a judicial injunction I doubt that the new residents are going to see much help. I have to say that I wonder just how much of an impact to their investment the new home owners are going to see. Just how much does the name of the street actually play into a buyers mind when it comes to property purchases?

While some streets do carry a certain mark up price or prestige, Sherbrooke ave in Montreal, or Park Avenue in New York, does the name really matter all that much when dealing with the thousands of permutations in the suburbs? Connfeild lane vs Wilson lane? Whats the difference?

When my parents moved back in 1997 they ended up choosing a great house with a ‘bad’ address, and while my dad wasn’t too happy about the street name one ‘Puff Ball Lane,’ they were and are still very happy with the house. When it came down to it, it was about finding the best house for their needs and in the location that they wanted. The street name was ultimately irrelevant to the purchasing decision. While I certainly am not going to try to suggest that most people are as practical as my parents when it comes to home shopping, I would venture a guess that things like the roof and the foundation are going to be bigger concerns then the street name.

I wonder what people who live on other Follys would say?  Just by searching ‘Folly Lane’ I came up with 10 different lanes, 9 in the UK where it is evidently much more popular but one here in Canada as well. I wonder if the people on Folly Lane in Belleville have had any trouble with the resale value of their homes? Not to mention all the other permutations like ‘Watts folly’ in Australia, and the town of Folly Virginia. Ultimately I still hope the name sticks, ‘OMB Folly’ has a real history to it now.

The importance of City Branding

The Greater Montreal Area has revealed it’s new logo, and the Greater Montreal Area has decided that this logo shows that Greater Montreal will give you room to make it real. These five colours show Greater Montreal’s many different parts, and well, I will just let them explain;

“It refers to the fact the Greater Montreal region offers a physical space … for a pleasant quality of life, where you can earn a living and raise a family, but also have access to nature, waterways and the vast green spaces you find on Montreal Island and in the other municipalities of the region, But it’s also a reference to psychological space and creative space, and the possibility of realizing your projects, your ambitions and your career.”

---

Personally the first thing that I think of when I look at it, is that this is actually an old logo from the seventies, and someone had the bright idea to just dust it off so that they could just keep the money. If I didn’t know it was new, it might make me think that Greater Montreal hadn’t felt the need to update their signage since the seventies, or been able to afford too. There are a number of different opinions out there about the new logo. The montreal city weblog has the following quote.

“The candy colours are complemented by deliberately naïve typography, a somewhat odd choice for a metropolis trying to get by on its sophistication and creativity. Just off the top of my head, I’d suggest that nobody but local bureaucrats cares about the fine political distinction between “Montreal” and “Greater Montreal” so they could’ve left that out. But this kind of thing arrives after half a million dollars’ worth of politicking, compromise, design, redesign, reredesign, whimsical overturnings of weeks of work by somebody important back from holiday and so on. (No, I don’t know anything about the evolution of this logo, but I’ve seen a glimpse of corporate logo development and too many cooks stirring the broth.)

Read the Gazette Article here, and check out the furious chatter over on Canada.com. What do you think?

Revenge on the Street

While the title of this article may lead one to think that this was about some sort of violent retribution that took place on the mean streets of the city. This particular revenge took place in the municipal council chambers of North York Ontario. The council had been trying to block a townhouse development on a site that sits outside of the city’s designated North York Centre development area. However in Ontario there is a provincial body called the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) that developers can use to challenge rulings and in many cases see those rulings are over turned. In this case Hallstone Group’s challenge was supported by the OMB and the board ruled that the development should be allowed to go ahead even though it is at odds with the municipal council and the planning commission.

So the municipal council decided to thank the OMB by naming the new street an address that makes its feelings clear. ‘OMB Folly’. Councillor John Filion has been a thorn in the side of many a developer in North York was particularly incensed by the ruling;

“This one really stands out as the most ludicrous decision that I know of,” Filion said. “It takes the cake. I could cite a lot of terrible OMB decisions, but it’s the one that’s just obviously absurd and ridiculous.”

So he decided to get creative and came up with a suggestion for the new name. What he didn’t expect was the support for the new name he would get from council. It was 7-2 for the new name. One of the other councillors said that this may open the possiblity for the city to come up with some very creative names for developments that the OMB decides to allow without the support of the council or the planning department.

The OMB had no comment.

The developmer is less then impressed. He feels like council needs to ‘grow up!’ personally I love it, I mean really who needs another street named after a tree or a fantastical sounding woodland grove. Of course the new name isn’t a done deal yet.. council needs to make sure it doesn’t contravene the street-naming policy, a policy that says derogatory names should be avoided, but I hope it sticks.

You too could have a beautiful town home on OMB Folly Rd.

(Theoretical promotional material for the new development)

Check out these articles in the National Post and thestar.com

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/story.html?id=869005

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/513835

Author Add on, Check out the comments below one of our readers who has had a run in with the OMB has something to say and it turns out that our very own ‘themightyfin’ has experience working for the crazy cats at the OMB. Check out their stories below.