Mr. Vance,
I read with interest your recent column about the low voter turnout, and the lack of serious opposition to development proposals in general.
You make some very valid points, but I must point out that Meaford (like so many small municipalities) tends to attract potential developers who lack the means or credibility to construct their visions.
Councils and senior staff tend to behave similarly to Pavlovian dogs, salivating at every apparent ‘huge benefit’ to the municipality that comes their way. Someone with a tie and an impressive Powerpoint presentation isn’t necessarily a real developer. Many property assemblers are REITs, or other land speculators, which only need a few of their acquisitions to succeed. They are not in this for the municipality.
We can see this downtown, where a proposed huge five-story residential-commercial complex from several years back not only didn’t happen, the entire property was up for sale right after council waived the Heritage designation especially for the project.
Another large assemblage of property took place on and around Collingwood Street, with all the properties available for sale after the old building were removed. Some years ago, council almost opted for non-existent environmental equipment from a numbered Belize company with zero experience and zero references.
A massive proposal for thousands of people several years ago out on the Third Line came to naught. A company with a very dubious background tried to take advantage of the Royal Canadian Legion a few years ago, but mercifully disappeared. Meaford is included as a defendant in a lawsuit over serious apparent irregularities on the Gordon Crescent/Coleman Street subdivision, and is now tied to a province-wide series of ridiculing memes about the organization headed by Mike Holmes.
We have a major issue coming with the SkyDev project, which the OLT is likely to approve. Opposition is mainly from the neighbourhood affected, so do you feel this is “just a vocal minority”? If the proposal was for such a development at one end of Grandview Drive, those affected residents would be very vocal, but most St. Vincent St. residents might not care much, but is this the only salient criterion?
Care and caution is necessary each and every time we are approached by an entity that promises the moon but has no ability to deliver it.
Mike Robertson, Meaford
