Dear editor:

The reason the town’s planning committee meetings are so long is clearly that the applications are in contravention of the laws of the town.

They don’t comply with either the bylaws or the official plan and the applications probably shouldn’t have been accepted and certainly not given the credibility of having public meetings to discuss them.

The residents rely on the town’s bylaws and official plan when investing in their homes and they naturally don’t want large commercial developments in residential areas.

As to the developers’ threats to take the town’s rejection of their proposals to the Ontario Land Tribunal, the province has said that it wants more housing.

The Marotta and Hummel hotel proposals in Old Town could mean the removal of hundreds of housing units from the town.

At a time when the provincial government is asking for more housing, I can’t imagine why the Ontario Land Tribunal would agree to having hundreds of potential housing units removed and replaced by hotel rooms, especially when the land is in residential areas.

I strongly urge town staff and council to reject these commercial developments that are proposed for residential areas, knowing that they are not in the community’s or the province’s best interests.

Wayne Murray
NOTL