Development worries residents

Critics have many questions about growing Cambridge West plans

CAMBRIDGE — To critics, Cambridge West plans look bloated.

“How big a pie are the developers wanting to cook in that area?” Kevin Swayze, a West Galt resident, asked city council’s planning committee on Tuesday night.

It’s a big 90-hectare pie, bellying right up to the North Dumfries border. Three developers have their fingers in the project. They plan up to 1,824 homes.

That’s the latest grand total, recently jacked up from the original 1,069 homes.

“It takes my breath away a little bit, to think of that many homes going in there,” said Swayze, who lives a kilometre away from the Cambridge West lands.

Why not slice the plan into chunks West Galt can digest? Then the resulting traffic load might not be so paralyzing on West Galt’s network of narrow streets and not so overwhelming on a three-bridge escape valve over the Grand River into downtown.

“We can’t simply piecemeal this,” Mayor Doug Craig said. “Even if we wanted to.”

It’s a package deal and the three developers, weary of a process at least six years in the meandering, have taken their plans to the Ontario Municipal Board, with an appeal hearing to come next June. The city and region missed deadlines to make a decision, the developers argue. So they’re pushing their plans ahead to a higher power.

“They’ve cut the knees from out of us,” Craig said.

Now, a game of blind poker before the board may settle the future of one of the last remaining areas in the city untouched by development.

Council waits for results of a traffic study three years after a municipal environmental service plan was completed. An OMB ruling worries them.

This little corner of the city — surrounded by the township, Barrie’s Lake, Cruickston, Newman Creek and Devil’s Creek, and train tracks to the south and east — could be swept up into a massive development councillors and residents may not be ready for.

“We’re losing control of the whole

thing,” Coun. Frank Monteiro said. “That’s my fear.”

A group of 400 West Galt residents came up with a list of 41 questions regarding the traffic study of the area and outlined them on Tuesday. They are troubled, even if extensions of Newman Drive and Bismark Drive are included, along with a realignment of Blenheim Road.

“We’re not experts,” group spokesperson Keith Rivers summed up. “But we would like to engage in a discussion with the experts to come to a better resolution for all of us.”

There are no easy solutions, it seems.

Forget about the problematic possibility of a west-side bypass to take traffic in and out of the area of a potential Cambridge West. That was explored and abandoned 15 years ago, Craig said. It’s still unpalatable. The Rare charitable nature reserve, has no interest in allowing new roads on its property where 3,500 species of plants and animals live.

“We still do not endorse roads built through our lands,” Rare executive director Stephanie Sobek-Swant confirmed.

And Craig, who lives on George Street in Galt and knows West Galt gridlock well, spoke of an east-side Cambridge bypass in the near future. But that will take time and planning.

There’s no simple traffic lifeline to toss Cambridge West plans, it seems, even as developers promise to exceed a density target of 55 residents and jobs per hectare.

“I think the community is very clearly saying that a lot of this is not resounding well in terms of planning subdivisions when the road network clearly is not adequate,” Craig said. “I can’t support this proposal right now, in terms of what’s being presented. I’ll send it back to staff but there’s got to be some better answers.”

That staff report is due back in February.

Meanwhile, North Dumfries has concerns. The township wants to make sure Barrie’s Lake would not affected by Cambridge West run-off. Consultants for the developers say none of the three proposed subdivision plans would drain into Barrie’s Lake.

Still, there are worries that herons and turtles would suffer even if Cambridge West is to feature four 30-metre wildlife crossings. “Cambridge West is simply too big and too close to the most significant natural features in the region,” said Sue Stubley, whose family owns a good chunk of Barrie’s Lake property across the township line from Cambridge.

“The entire concept is outdated. The infrastructure to support it does not exist. And building that infrastructure will come at too great a cost to the environment and residents.”

But that will be a matter for the board to determine, it appears. A pre-hearing was held in September. A second one is set for March.

“I know you’re being pushed by the board, trying to make some quick decisions,” said Kurt Ditner, a Grand Avenue South resident who was among about 70 to attend Tuesday’s public meeting on the Cambridge West matter. “We have a lot of people here who are very concerned on the issues.”

Councillors like Jan Liggett are just as worried.

“I think this is the worst possible place for a development of this magnitude,” said Liggett, pondering an OMB battle. “We better be ready to do what’s best for our community. We should be fearless about that.”