The Council passed the first reading of the amended ordinance on February 24th. The only Councilmember who raised any objections was Susan Wengraf.

The amendments are purely cosmetic. Residential buildings with up to 4 units are exempt for 3 years, unless they are sold during that period. In 3 years, the ordinance will be revisited, and smaller buildings could/will be included. As the regular audit requirements don’t take effect until 2020, the changes make virtually no difference. We continue to believe that this ordinance is nothing more than a “make-work” for Planning Department, and that it replaces two well-conceived ordinances, RECO and CECO. The only problem with the existing ordinances was that Planning Department didn’t enforce them, so they were ineffective.

Nigel Guest