Letter to the Editor
Editor,
I read today with great interest the naysayers against the six storey proposed LTC building on Cook Street, but they would be willing to support four stories.
As you know I used to be in real estate here in Meaford for many years and during that time worked with many developers, on what could have been wonderful projects for this town and probably would have helped redevelop the downtown.
There is an old saying if you don’t want a town to die like ours is, as is very visibly happening, faster than in the past, one must be progressive and cannot maintain the status quo because if you do it eventually goes downhill which is happening to our downtown.
If some of the developments I was part of promoting for downtown had been granted more height instead of being entrenched in only four stories, I’m sure the downtown today would be a bustling thriving commercial hub, as the population downtown would have increased many fold with lots of people to support commercial enterprises as they would be living right there.
The common problem with our downtown development (and I include Cook Street as being part of downtown as well as Bayfield and the unopened Huron Street, etc.), is once a developer has paid the high price to assemble these properties he needs height in order to generate a profit from the project. If only four stories is allowed, the cost of each condo or rental unit to the public will be too high for the market and the project will not happen. I’m sure that’s why you see developers just sitting on their properties and nothing is happening and eventually the town will look even more like a ghost town.
Another rant of mine for development is to create a bypass around downtown Meaford as all the pass-through traffic offers no revenue for the merchants.
Take Bayfield where Hwy 21 bypasses it and Orangeville, Hwy 10 bypasses it and Thornbury Hwy 26 bypasses Bruce Street. All very thriving downtowns, but not Meaford for the two reasons I stated above.
Please consider raising the height restrictions and save this town.
Sincerely,
Andy Andersen, Meaford
