[All] Surprise Christmas MZO in Wilmot Township

Tue Dec 28 21:00:16 EST 2021

To GREN Members,

On Christmas Eve, the Township of Wilmot posted a notice for a Special Council Meeting planned for January 4th to support an MZO request in Wilmot Township.  There is shock and dismay in the community as the timing of this MZO is highly suspicious - being announced at the last minute late on Christmas Eve with the meeting scheduled first thing in the New Year when there is almost no ability to reach Staff to learn anything about the MZO request and no opportunity for local media coverage to inform the public either over the Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve holidays while also in the midst of the most serious COVID-19 variant seen thus far in the ongoing pandemic.

We can learn almost nothing about this MZO other than it is for likely residential expansion beyond the current urban boundary and leapfrogs existing farms like Pfennig’s Organic farm.   There is no Staff report, no information on the Wilmot Township Website, or details seemingly available anywhere.

	https://calendar.wilmot.ca//townshipcalendar/Detail/2022-01-04-1700-Special-Council-Meeting <https://calendar.wilmot.ca//townshipcalendar/Detail/2022-01-04-1700-Special-Council-Meeting>

It may also involve breaching the Countryside Line (according to the Regional Official Plan mapping from the Region of Waterloo website and attached below), has lead to the discovery that the Wilmot Official Plan may be illegal and not in conformity with the ROP, and would set an extremely dangerous precedent for developers to be able to circumvent what is supposed to be permanent farmland protection in Waterloo Region by requesting an MZO and using the provincial government to overturn local environmental and farmland protections.

We are unsure if there is any Council or Staff support for this application, if there have already been in-camera meetings, or if it is simply at the request of the land speculators.  

Elsewhere in Ontario MZO requests have been defeated early by not receiving local Council support.  Minister Clark has at least been somewhat consistent that he won’t approve an MZO without strong local Council approval first and the Blair MZO fiasco in Cambridge should certainly make local Councils very weary of getting caught between developers and the province.  Wisely the Cambridge Council has issued a moratorium on all MZO considerations until a policy for MZO’s and public engagement is developed and approved which might be prudent for Wilmot Township to consider as well.

The public is increasingly outraged by the use of MZOs and in particular the timing here is extremely troubling - already this Wilmot situation is being cited elsewhere in the province as a perfect example of the bad planning the Premier is encouraging.  This is not how we plan a world-class community by announcing things over the holidays with an immediate meeting scheduled with no information publicly available and no time for any media coverage or ability to respond.

MZO’s not only bypass all public engagement and consultation but also bypass environmental assessments, proper planning, and override all local protections such as our Countryside Line, Protected Countryside, ESPA’s, PSW’s, etc.  It is shameful to see developers even trying to use MZO’s here in Waterloo Region when we are renown for good planning and lead the province with our SmartGrowth success.

Anyways, the outrage in the community is already significant and will likely grow as more people learn about this situation.  Frankly, it sure doesn’t look good and it’s situations like this that sink entire Councils and tarnish communities for decades as a banana republic where developers run wild - not the reputation Wilmot wants I'm sure.  It’s not surprising that citizens are so cynical of government when such important decisions shaping the future of our community for decades are being undertaken in a rushed, secretive manner in the middle of Christmas holidays such as this.

We need people to e-mail and phone Wilmot Staff and Councillors.  We also need people to appear as virtual delegations on Zoom at the Wilmot Township January 4th Special Meeting at 5:00pm (also an unusual time for a Council meeting).  We also need people to share this concerning news with others in the community since there is no local Wilmot media publishing over the holiday prior to the planned meeting.

The Wilmot Township Clerk can be reached at: clerks at wilmot.ca or (519) 634-8444 x9228

Wilmot Township Planning Staff can be reached at:  harold.okrafka at wilmot.ca or (519) 634-8519 x9236

New Wilmot Township CAO Sharon Chambers can be reached at:  sharon.chambers at wilmot.ca or (519) 634-8519 x9237

The Wilmot Councillors can be reached at:

	Les Armstrong - Mayor - les.armstrong at wilmot.ca or (519) 634-8519 x9231
	Angie Hallman - Ward 1 - angie.hallman at wilmot.ca or (519) 998-3983
	Cheryl Gordijk - Ward 2 - cheryl.gordijk at wilmot.ca or (519) 998-8317
	Barry Fisher - Ward 3 - barry.fisher at wilmot.ca or (519) 807-8597
	Jeff Gerber - Ward 4 - jeff.gerber at wilmot.ca or (519) 496-5769
	Jennifer Pfenning - Ward 4 - jennifer.pfenning at wilmot.ca or (519) 998-6029

Please share any questions or ideas.  I’m reachable via phone (519) 240-1648 or e-mail anytime.

Thank you,
Kevin.

——————————————————

1) Rough Map of Proposed MZO area in Wilmot Township

2) Current Regional Official Plan maps downloaded from the Regional website clearly showing these properties as prime agricultural land and beyond the Countryside Line.

----------------------------

Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com <mailto:kevinthomason at mac.com>

-----------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20211228/4d6ff1b3/attachment-0003.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Wilmot Proposed MZO Dec 24 2021.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1371176 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20211228/4d6ff1b3/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20211228/4d6ff1b3/attachment-0004.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Map_7-The_Countryside-access.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 630316 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20211228/4d6ff1b3/attachment-0001.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20211228/4d6ff1b3/attachment-0005.html>