PelhamToday received the following letter from Andew Watts in reaction to last week's letter to the editor, Fonthill eyesore just 'thin edge of the wedge':
It’s nice to know there are some out there concerned about a growing number of planning decisions in Niagara Region by councils who obviously have no clue what is contained in their own Official Plans and zoning bylaws when they approve their planning staff’s recommendations.
One of the primary planning policy recommendations within zoning bylaws is that any new development should be ‘....in character with existing homes...’, another, ‘...any new development should not negatively impact existing homes in the neighbourhood...’
Both of the above appear to be completely ignored by our local, Regional, and provincial planners, as all must be aware of, and in favour of any planning application before it is presented to local councils for approval. And they approve even if Regional and provincial policies are also being ignored.
Upper-tier planners, if asked, will state that they won’t interfere in local decisions, as they can’t or won’t question approvals made by local planning staff.
It’s all rather bizarre when you believe that your local planning staff are employed by you, and paid for with your taxes, in the mistaken belief that any and all planning decisions are made in the residents’ best interests. Nothing could be further than the truth!
Your local council loves new development as it increases the property tax income and allows them to take even more of our taxes to waste.
Your planners are neither environmentalists nor conservationists, in fact they also like spending your added taxes to ensure a growing municipal staff can be paid for. Within any municipality they are probably the single most effective developers lobby group.
Doug Ford has not helped, because even though planning staff have been ignoring Official Plans and zoning bylaws for years, they can now blame Ford for even more bad planning recommendations being put before all local councils, not just Pelham’s.
Andrew Watts
Wainfleet
