Edgehill Park: county councillors asked to reject Midland’s OPA

278 Letters Of Opposition Submitted To Simcoe County

OurMidland.ca

This afternoon, 278 signed letters expressing concern and opposition to the County approval of Midland’s Official Plan Amendment #8 were turned over to the clerks for County Council’s consideration in their upcoming vote. In addition, we have provided the signatures of 1851 County residents (1150 of which identify as Midland residents) who signed a petition to stop the rezoning of Edgehill Park in Midland for commercial use.

The controversial decision by Midland Municipal Council was a made to allow commercial development on pristine waterfront parkland, despite the largest uprising of community opposition in recent history.

The decision is now the subject of an OMB appeal application.

We respectfully requested that the Chair consider this petition AND the letters written to the County of Simcoe as on-desk information and correspondence at the upcoming County Council meeting where OPA#8 is to be discussed, debated and considered for approval.

Our most sincere desire is that the County planners will have carefully examined the proposal, identified the planning issues that it represents and will also take into consideration the strong community opposition ultimately recommending that County Council reject it and send it back to the community for more work and review.

At very least, we would like County Council to be aware of the magnitude of opposition in our community to this plan and trust that they will take that into consideration when debating this issue with their peers before any vote.

Midland is not known for their “uprising” or “civil unrest” with their elected officials and this surge in opposition is unprecedented. As such we are trusting in the wisdom of our County planners and officials to review this without the partisan biases that we believe to exist in our community Council and their connections to the beneficiaries of this amendment allowing for commercial development (no matter the tenant) on our pristine waterfront parkland when so many other suitable lands exist.

We trust that County Council and planners will collectively consider these submissions when debating the issues surrounding OPA#8.