PelhamToday received the following letter to the editor regarding Niagara planning policies:
It was so sad to read Graham Pett’s final paragraph regarding the folks, many seniors, who are to be evicted from their homes to benefit a landlord and a developer who have no thought for their welfare and who have no interest in developing ‘affordable homes’ or ‘affordable rentals’.
I thought his letter was a good one and made sense although I’m not sure that he highlighted the real problem with planning today.
That would be the planning staff, given free rein to meet and work with potential developers over months and even years, without any council oversight, to put in place planning recommendations that conflict directly with existing Official Plans and Zoning Bylaws and without any regard to existing neighbourhoods and communities. You know, those property tax folk who actually employ, and pay for their planning staff?
You only have to look at headlines from almost every municipality in Niagara Region in recent months and years where the ‘public’, and even some on council, are the last ones to hear of a highly controversial development that, in most cases, will be approved.
Andrew Watts
Wainfleet
