CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is one of several sent in response to an article about council pausing the servicing for the future site of the "Campus of Care," which includes long-term care beds, retirement living, staff housing, and family housing. No site plan has yet been submitted for the project, the town is currently discussing servicing plans for the area.
In the letter to the editor headlined, "NIMBYism stands in the way of long-term care beds," former mayor Alar Soever once again resorts to hyperbole as he champions a sweetheart deal for a "very reputable developer."
True, Mr. Reale's property may be the only one backing onto the 18.7 acres of farmland that Mr. Soever so eagerly wishes to see converted into a megalopolis of nine multi-storey buildings – six of them five-storeys tall, in contravention of the town's three-storey limit.
In reality, an entire existing neighborhood and much of western Thornbury would be affected by the surge of traffic this development would spur. Most starkly, the development concept proposes turning Peel St. into the primary access point.
Peel is a quiet street currently serving as the tributary to the existing neighborhood situated immediately to the east of the so-called "Campus of Care" proposal, not just Mr. Reale's property.
Imagine in Collingwood for example, converting the YMCA land on Hume Street into a nine-building development housing 1,000-plus people, then designating Minnesota St. as the main access from Hwy 26, or Lockhart Rd from Hurontario. Same deal in Thornbury.
Once completed, the Campus of Care – actually, a real estate development disguised as a long-term-care project – would have parking spaces for about 800 vehicles (based on the concept plan). Hwy 26 through Thornbury is already congested at times.
Drivers, seeking alternate routes, will inevitably spill onto nearby streets such as Alice, Alfred, Duncan, Napier and King W., which are hosts to a growing number of families.
Town of the Blue Mountains council voted responsibly to table the "Campus of Care" servicing project on April 30. It's up again for a vote on Monday, May 13.
Campus backers are attempting to rush approval with the bare minimum of public consultation, and without performing the most basic precepts of municipal planning.
None of the sociological research has been done, or if so, it hasn't been revealed. By squeezing that many people and their visitors onto 18.7 acres, where will the family doctors come from? How about hospital emergency room capacity, mental health professionals, teachers and space in the schools, firefighters, police officers, recreational facilities, etc?
Mr. Reale and others are alarmed, and accordingly are asking such questions.
Skyline proposes to erect four five-storey multi-family buildings with units to be sold at "market rate" and two five-storey seniors buildings selling either at market rate or as rentals (we don't know). One playground serving a daycare facility and all those buildings would occupy space representing a small fraction of the land designated for parking lots.
Mr. Soever also conveniently neglects to mention that Thornbury Meadows, a five-minute drive from the Campus, is a townhome development restricted to people aged 55 and up. When completed, there will be 85 units. Other rental developments are proposed.
His objections are objectionable.
Tom Maloney
The Blue Mountains, Ont.
