Don’t link hospital site to expansion

Re: Planners questions over mega-hospital location during public consultation by Tamar Harris, July 7.

There was a meeting on July 5 to get public input about a plan for future development of the 890 acres that surround the site slated for the new mega-hospital.

Windsor Regional Hospital neither represents the city, nor developers willing to purchase the land and pay the costs of development up front. It only plans to purchase 60 acres and is exempt from development fees.

Putting the debate about the hospital itself aside, I fail to see the need for the additional development when the city is encouraging brownfield and infill development.

We have seen the results of overdevelopment and expansion. We have holes to fill within the developed part of the city and areas that are in constant need of revitalization. We have a surplus of commercial properties and houses that become abandoned or undervalued.

We have no need to expand the city to develop more, nor can we even risk considering it unless the economy and population continue to rapidly grow.

There are no long-range predictions of rapid continued growth and the outlook remains uncertain in an automotive town facing technology changes.

Developers have angrily left the city because the city wouldn’t bend the rules far enough for them, rules that were the result of intensive planning. The hospital deserves nothing more.

The hospital site selection process suggested the hospital could have been arbitrarily located anywhere as long as the site allowed for ease of construction.

If the city or developers have been collaborating with the hospital on this, let that be announced. Don’t use the hospital to justify unnecessary development.

The citizens must be allowed and encouraged to speak up but this meeting was not well-publicized. Doug Charles, Windsor