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Critical Hearing on Corwin Subdivision The Ontario Municipal Board hearing, on the Corwhin urban subdivision and golf course condominium proposal is going to open September 17th for three weeks at the Community Centre. Many people feel that this hearing is of vital significance to the future of Puslinch and Wellington County about the acceptability of urban style housing subdivisions. On March 27th a preconference hearing was held in council chambers to establish the agenda and structure for this hearing. Thomasfield Homes requested this OMB hearing and the designated parties opposing the proposal are Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Mill Creek Community Liaison Team [Helen Purdy and Lynda Walters], and Barbara Bulmer. Sixteen people also registered themselves as official participants for the hearing. Helen Purdy reported to the chairperson that the required public meeting on the proposal had not been held as Thomasfield had applied to the OMB prematurely. The OMB chairperson then directed that a public meeting would be held on June 6th in the Community Centre. Over 350 people attended this public meeting that was flawlessly chaired by Mayor Brad Whitcombe. Following a forty-minute presentation by Tom Krizan [President] and Astrid Clos [planner] describing the proposed development and its merits over fifty people addressed the meeting with their concerns and comments. The meeting was a good opportunity for interested people to hear the views and concerns of others [most of them have been recorded in previous Pioneer articles]. It also served as a warm up and rehearsal for the OMB public meeting where the adjudicator/judge will hear the concerns before he or she makes the final decision on whether or not the development will be permitted. The session of the OMB hearing where the public can participate will be Thursday night, September 27th at 7:00 p.m. While this meeting is open and registration is not required, people desiring to address the hearing were encouraged to provide a written statement about what they want to say to the clerk by Aug. 17th. Any visual aids participants plan to use must be at the Community Centre on Friday Sept.14th, before the hearing. After reading numerous OMB hearing reports my sense of what may have some influence on the decision of the adjudicator goes like this. Data or information that is factual - actual examples of the point being made that can be substantiated - and is presented by a credible person. Credibility can be either an expert with academic and experience credentials or sincere people describing their own experiences. I have not read any reports where adjudicators reported being influenced by the sheer number of protesters or by general concerns such as increased traffic and pollution, or loss of rural lifestyle or community spirit. To present these issues successfully appears to require actual personal experiences or examples that can be documented such as published reports, before and after pictures or statistics of the impact of similar developments on the community, etc. The Mill Creek Community Liaison Team has done extensive preparation for the hearing which pulls together over five years of representing the public on water and environment issues in Puslinch and monitoring the implementation of the half million dollar Mill Creek watershed study. Their documen-tation submitted for the hearing consists of over 300 pages. Review copies of it and submissions of the other parties are available in the library and township office. The Community Liaison Team certainly deserves our support for carrying the flag for us in this critical OMB hearing. As the team members have been paying all their costs [including aerial photography] out of their own pockets, donations would be very appropriate. Checks should be made out to Mill Creek Watershed Community Liaison Team and send to B. Wozniak, R.R. 22, Station Preston, Cambridge, ON. N3C 2V4. |