‘This feels like brute force’
Homeowners back farmers in battle against Wilmot land assembly
A beautiful home with a pond in front and acres of woods behind form the postcard-perfect image of a quiet life in rural southern Ontario.
Damian Polanic and his family have lived on Bleams Road at Nafziger Road in Wilmot Township for 16 years, and like thousands of others, they are passionately opposed to the land assembly underway close to their home.
“This feels like brute force,” said Polanic.
The region is working with Wilmot Township to assemble 770 acres of land bordered by Bleams Road, Nafziger Road, Highway 7/8 and Wilmot Centre Road. There are six farms and six residential properties the region wants to turn into a shovel-ready site for a big economic investment.
Polanic’s property is just across Nafziger Road from the proposed industrial mega-site. The region ignited the controversy by hiring a private-sector consultant, Canacre, to offer the six farmers about $35,000 an acre, and also buy the six residential properties.
There has been no communication with the region since they made the offers. No one has received a notice of expropriation either. But the property owners visited by the region’s consultant, and their neighbours, remain upset and want answers.
“To do it like this just is not right,” said Polanic. “They completely removed public consultation — these are the people who voted you in.”
Premier Doug Ford asked municipalities to prepare shovel-ready sites for big investments, but distanced Queen’s Park from the region’s heavy-handed tactics, saying the province wants to work with willing partners.
Polanic and his wife grew up attending high schools in downtown Kitchener in the early 1990s. After getting married, they moved to Wilmot Township, living first in Baden, then New Hamburg and 16 years
ago moved to their current home at Bleams Road and Nafziger Road.
“We just fell in love with the area,” said Polanic.
The Ford government has proposed legislation that gives economic development officials more power. What is going on in Wilmot Township could be played out elsewhere around Ontario as municipalities scramble to attract big companies.
About 25 years ago, municipal government expanded their economic development offices and budgets. They wanted to attract big employers and the people who work for them.
During that time municipal budgets for communications also increased significantly, but the “ec-dev” leaders don’t communicate — they sign nondisclosure agreements that bind themselves, elected officials and the corporations they are wooing into legal cones of silence.
So, Wilmot Township councillors and Mayor Natasha Salonen say they can’t talk about it. Salonen issued a statement saying, in part, they will take the concerns of residents to regional council.
The six farmers waiting for expropriation notices have the support of more than 22,000 people who signed a petition opposing the land assembly. Neighbours like Marie Voisin and her husband Greg.
In 1995, they bought an old stone house that was built in the mid-1800s by William Scott, the founder of New Hamburg. He imported granite from Scotland and built the house himself, taking from 1854 to 1858.
The Voisins restored the historic property, added a big addition and settled in at 3332 Bleams Rd.
“We spent many years doing that,” said Marie. “We have been told it is the nicest historic home in the region.”
Scott arrived in the 1830s, and built his first house, called The Waterlot at 17 Huron St. in New Hamburg. Then he built the house on Bleams Road where the Voisins now live. Marie and Greg were living in Kitchener when they bought the old house.
“We saw it was in disrepair, and we didn’t want anything to happen to it, so we decided we would fix it up,” said Marie.
There are 32 active springs on the Voisin’s eight-acre property. Marie said two immediate neighbours have received offers on their properties recently. And if a big industrial site is created a short distance away, increased truck traffic and employee vehicles will fill the roads.
“We restored this house and hoped future generations would live here, but now we are not so certain this is going to happen,” said Marie. “Who would want to live here? Nobody will want to buy it, the value will go down tremendously.”
She estimates 100 property owners will be directly impacted by creating an industrial site nearby.
“It is going to destroy the whole ambience of New Hamburg, a little town that cares about everyone,” said Marie.
At the eastern end of the land assembly there are several property owners who never received an offer from the region, but they don’t want to live beside a jumbo-size industrial park either.
Eric Sprague lives at 2750 Bleams Rd., the second house on the right after you pass Wilmot Centre Road on the way to New Hamburg. The property next door is part of the land assembly. Sprague and his family have lived there for 28 years. Their house sits on a one-acre lot that would be dwarfed by a huge industrial park.
“We were all kind of blindsided by this,” said Sprague. “it is pretty much bullying.”
He turns 70 in August and had not planned on moving.
Not far away is Brian Legge, who has lived on Wilmot Centre Road for 41 years. His property is very close to the land assembly, and he is frustrated by the lack of information from local and regional councils.
“Very disappointing,” said Legge. “Everyone went silent — people we voted in and they have nothing to say.”