Attached is the response I received from Staff to my presentation at the May 20th Council meeting. As you can see, almost none of my suggestions were accepted. The only significant change was the exclusion of our cottage from the NHS (originally erroneously included because it could not be seen from aerial photographs).
Also attached is a letter to the Mayor and the Councillors expressing my frustration at the uncompromising attitude of Staff and with their failure to address the flaws in the NHS plan. This may be the last opportunity for Council to correct these flaws. If it does not, I think that incorporation of this NHS into the official plan will be causing future Councils headaches for years.
There are compelling reasons for you to vigorously oppose this plan, not least because of the human impact on landowners of having the use of substantial portions of their own land taken out of their control with almost no real opportunity for them to participate in the process.
I hope that you will question Staff’s justification of what the Landform criterion has to do with the Natural Heritage System, particularly since the Ontario Regulations do not bar responsible development of landform features. I hope you will also question their consistent intransigence, not only in rejecting virtually all of my input (which I believe was extremely reasonable and non-confrontational) but also the input of others that I am aware of GV