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Indeed. I'm actually in contact with the writer of that article and the publisher of the newspaper over email, inquiring as to why they posed the neighbourhood concerns as "the houses don't look right!" rather than the more pressing concerns of well water and creek/lake health that several people raised at the town meeting. I'll be sending more information Patrick's way today in hope of having them address these topics rather than making the article a fluff developer piece.
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QUOTE (ronzigator @ Mar 07, 2024 - 08:14 am)
Indeed. I'm actually in contact with the writer of that article and the publisher of the newspaper over email, inquiring as to why they posed the neighbourhood concerns as "the houses don't look right!" rather than the more pressing concerns of well water and creek/lake health that several people raised at the town meeting. I'll be sending more information Patrick's way today in hope of having them address these topics rather than making the article a fluff developer piece.
HI "R"
Did you get my e-mail?
I have a friend who lives on Leonard St. in Innisfil and like you, is very concerned about this proposed development.
He would really like to work with you to oppose it.
Can you send me a PM with your contact info., so that I can put the 2 of you together.
Right now he is in Mexico, but is back at the end of the month.
Group: Members
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Member No.: 11378
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Yessir, I did receive your PM. Last week got away from me a bit, had some extra work pop up and had to replace a fuel line on my aging SUV, good times! Thanks a lot for reaching out!
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I’m very interested to know what species of minnows these are. Probably need to do some catch and release netting, with pics to show what species the minnows are. That minnow spawning picture is insane! It belongs on a BBC documentary video or something.
Species At Risk (SAR) policy can be deadly to developments, so it’s important to know what minnow type exactly. Other people are in the right track regarding wet works of amphibians for possible Species At Risk.
Additionally, this sounds like a potential ANSI candidate. ANSI designation is a long winded provincial process but would kill all devs.
I am a professional consultant in the land developemt process. I will try to take another deeper look today.
Group: Newbies
Posts: 17
Member No.: 20598
Joined: March 30, 2024
Ronzigator, I spent some time reviewing this proposal, and I believe that the Proponent's consultant played very loose with their report. It is extremely aggressive and some parts make no sense.
I will keep it brief for everyone else on this board:
1. Official Plan shows it is currently a mix of "retirement / residential low density 1", "key natural heritage feature", and "key hydrologic features". These Official Plan designations are in-place to protect the features plainly found.
2. Significant woodland is protected as per Innisfil Official Plan Section 23.3.127. The consultant makes a workplay / poor attempt at loophole, in order to remove 6Ha out of 64Ha. They ask for "flexibility", but I don't see why this one needs flexibility... current Official Plan works just fine.
3. Wetland is being proposed to remove 2.8Ha, which is interconnected to the majority to the east / northeast. New provincial legislature means that it is up to the local township to provide Significant Wetland evaluation (no longer P for Provincial). Proponent failed to evaluate this wetland if it is significant or not.
4. Proponent wants to "reimburse" wetlands and forests to be removed, at another property (probably lower value). This is sometimes allowed and okay, as compensation is at a greater ratio of 3:1 wetland and 2:1 forests. However, offset from top of bank is 15m (but should be 30m).
5. They explained away Species At Risk way too much, such as 3 identified species, ignored the critically rare pair of Wood Thrush that was found complete, ignored snapping turtles, and explained away Blanding's Turtle. Need more work before the project should be entertained.
6. Fish habitat - this is the one that caught my eye, and your posted image of the schooling minnow. If you have evidence to prove this, such as location, date and time of the photo, then this is very critical. Fish habitat is claimed to be not-affected simply due to 30m offset from edge of water, but then the stormwater management pond will for sure generate crazy amounts of disturbance. Salt will kill this stream.
I've written a 5 page professional opinion letter, as a critical consultant in the southern Ontario development industry. I would be happy to share it to you, and you can arrange a digital meeting with the Town's planning manager / local Councillor.
Group: Members
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Member No.: 11378
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QUOTE (Araret @ Apr 02, 2024 - 06:36 am)
I’m very interested to know what species of minnows these are. Probably need to do some catch and release netting, with pics to show what species the minnows are. That minnow spawning picture is insane! It belongs on a BBC documentary video or something.
Species At Risk (SAR) policy can be deadly to developments, so it’s important to know what minnow type exactly. Other people are in the right track regarding wet works of amphibians for possible Species At Risk.
Additionally, this sounds like a potential ANSI candidate. ANSI designation is a long winded provincial process but would kill all devs.
I am a professional consultant in the land developemt process. I will try to take another deeper look today.
Hi Araret, regarding the minnows, I'm not sure of species. I'd LOVE to have someone come with me in May and investigate that by doing a little sampling along the creek. Or, someone who could estimate the numbers based on what they see. I see countless minnows, but someone with more knowledge might be able to ballpark it.
I'm grateful for the time you took to write up this information. I'm going to contact you via the form on your website, thanks for offering your help!
I was contacted by the writer of the previously posted news article, and he stated that he's working on a follow-up to the previous article, and he requested clearance to use a couple of quotes that I had sent him via email. I replied with a pretty large amount of information about Sandy Cove creek, hoping that he'll highlight the potential damage in his follow-up along with the concerns about well water levels.
Thanks everyone for your support via signatures, or via reaching out to help. I've been in contact with the Town of Innisfil, and have gotten as far as having the engineering team force the developer to provide a remediation plan that is supposed detail how they'll fix things once they destroy the water table. That was a couple of weeks ago at this point.
We're going to keep pushing things forward. Information such as the above couple of posts will hopefully go a long way! Having read the assessments, I am in complete agreement that the dismissive language throughout was disturbing, but not surprising. These corporations want the $$$$ from these lake-adjacent homes at any cost.
Group: Members
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Member No.: 11378
Joined: February 16, 2016
Hey everyone,
Quick update - We're now working with Save Lake Simcoe Coalition, whose executive director has taken an interest in what's going on here. We have a (hopefully) big push for signatures coming up this week, and we're in the midst of creating a website that can be shared. Things move slowly sometimes, quickly other times, but last week was a "quick" one as far as this initiative is concerned. Another round of emails went out to relevant councillors this morning.
Also, for your viewing pleasure, here's another picture of stacked minnow from last May.
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