Wauchope wakes up to resident concerns

I found last week's article on deputy mayor Gord Wauchope's opposition to a development so close to his home very strange indeed.

His opposition smacks of the old saying that 'I like them fine as long as they don't live next door'. The concerns expressed by Wauchope and his wife are that this development will lower their property value, they will lose their privacy and it will increase the traffic on Innisfil Beach Road.

Well, wake up and smell the roses. These concerns have dogged many area residents for a long time and I don't remember hearing a lot about it from Wauchope and his wife until it concerned them personally.

Innisfil, and in this case Alcona, is a quiet and relatively safe community to live and raise a family, but every new development, every huge influx of new homes and people into a small community lowers everyone's property values, decreases everyone's privacy and adds immensely to the traffic volumes and congestion. But hey, that's life in the big city. The problem is that most of us don't want to live in the big city. That's why we live here.

I don't recall hearing the stalwart voice of Wauchope through the battle over the Big Bay Point development which will dump thousands more people into the community and a thousand or more boats onto Lake Simcoe. But then, it was not next door to him.

It does not take a genius to figure out that when that many people are dropped into Big Bay Point they will have two exit points to travel out of the area; they can muddle through the traffic congestion of the south end of Barrie or they can travel down through the nice quiet community of Innisfil. Hence, we can look forward to a massive increase of traffic on the 25th Sideroad and Innisfil Beach Road. Have you been on those roads lately? Both are falling apart and can barely support the traffic flow now. But that's OK, I'm sure the generous residents of Innisfil will be happy to foot the bill so the developers can make lots of money off their high priced condos and a golf course most of us will not be able to afford.

The developer's ads on radio have told us time and again that this development, with its thousand or more boats on the lake will actually be good for the environment. How dumb do they think we are?

We all want to preserve the quiet nature of our community, and without development that will be a very difficult and costly task. The real question is what kind of development, where and how, will allow us to maintain the kind of community and life style most residents want. And most residents do not want to turn into Toronto North, Davis Drive in Newmarket or Mapleview Drive in Barrie.

It would be nice to just tell Wauchope what goes around comes around, or you reap what you sow. But that is too easy. The problem is, he may be right for all the wrong reasons, but he is right.

More and more residents of Innisfil must start to speak up for the kind of community we want to have. I'm sure The Scope would love to be inundated with letters discussing what kind of Innisfil we want and how do we get it. Put your thinking caps on folks. There are two big question you should all have an opinion on; how do we preserve and improve the community we have, and how do we pay for it? Since the Harris government of the 1990's saw fit to download the cost of many programs and services onto the communities, many small towns across the province are struggling to survive. Unfettered development is not the only solution.

There are many forums in which to put forward your thoughts and ideas; our community newspapers, residents organizations and environmental groups. This letter is the result of discussions among some of my neighbours.

We should all use every avenue open to us to speak up and express the kind of place we want to live rather than sit by and fiddle while Innisfil burns.
Dan Hammond,
Alcona