The intricacies of zoning by-laws and official city plans can often appear dense and undecipherable, but they can also provide the first line of defense against big box stores, including Wal-Mart, from taking over your town. The process usually starts at your own city council, but in some places, in particular Ontario, the battle doesn't end there. This week, the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is hearing appeals from two community organisations who believe that recent council decisions to allow Wal-Mart into town goes against their respective cities' zoning by-laws and development plans.

Residents of Scugog, in the Durham region, will be in pre-hearings at the OMB starting today, October 30th. Residents of the small Ontario town started Concerned Citizens of Scugog, and their website http://portperrysaysno.com in spring 2006 when it became clear that a Wal-Mart would be coming to town. The groups believes council's approval of Wal-Mart will negatively impact local business owners and devastate the local economy, as well as break the city's official development plan. [Image shows downtown Port Perry]

While the CCS will just be starting it's process at the OMB, residents of Port Elgin will be wrapping up their challenge to Wal-Mart coming to their town. Plans for a new Wal-Mart have been in front of the OMB since late last summer, but because of the high number of witnesses being called, the proceedings were extended by several weeks, with the final days of hearings on Nov. 1 and 2. Like Scugog residents, citizens of Port Elgin are challenging a local council decision as going against city zoning regulations. You can read more about their innovative arguments (which we'll blog about later this week) in last week's Toronto Star.

Both groups may be facing uphill battles, though. Recent criticisms of the Ontario Municipal Board have pointed to the fact that it seems to overly favour development projects, ruling in development's favour in 59 percent of cases between 1995 and 2000, and with little sign of any changes since. One piece of information we recently heard, and are working to verify, is that the OMB has never ruled against SmartCentres, Wal-Mart's primary development partner in Canada. Even if this is simply an impression or the reality of the situation, there is little dispute that between running out of money to pay for lawyers, or simply being out-waited and needing to get back to their daily lives, citizen's groups have a tough time with the OMB.