Save Our Shoreline Collingwood

ALERT!! Living Waters Development Application Proceeds to Council Without Public Consultation! SOS Collingwood has been notified that the new development application for the Living Waters/Bear Estate site will be proceeding to the Development & Operations Committee of Council on Monday March 18th at 5:00 PM. This is occurring despite the fact that SOS Collingwood has still not received a formal response to its March 8th letter to Council requesting the public consultation ...that many Councillors said they supported in last Fall’s election. What is especially troubling, is that SOS Collingwood only received this notice on Friday after the deadline had passed for interested parties to apply to make a formal deputation at the Committee meeting. We need your assistance. Please visit www.soscollingwood.ca for more information about this issue and how you can help.

ALERT! New Bear Estate Development Application Submitted! The Town has advised that a new development application for the Living Waters/Bear Estate site has been submitted. The new application only seeks approval for a portion of what was proposed in the June 2018 application, however, the cover letter with the developer's application clearly states that the other 2018 phases, including the Bear Estate expansion, will be submitted at a later date. It appears the original June... 2018 application is just being broken into several smaller applications to expedite approval. The new application could proceed to Council's Development & Operations Committee as early as March 18th and to full Council as early as March 25th. Many recently elected Councillors clearly supported a meaningful and transparent public consultation on this development in the last election. That consultation has not occurred and can't possibly happen if the Town moves to approve this application in the next two weeks. Visit www.soscollingwood.ca to see our letter to Town Council seeking a real consultation. If you agree with our position please let Council know. Email addresses for all Councillors can be found at: http://www.collingwood.ca/council As the attached photo shows, the protected wetlands are active with wildlife year-round. Mother nature never sleeps. But neither do developers. We need your help.

At its December 17th meeting Collingwood's new Town Council agreed to commence reviews of the Town's Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw. SOS Collingwood applauds our new Council for taking this much needed step. These reviews present a great opportunity to enact new and positive measures to protect Collingwood's sensitive wetland areas. SOS Collingwood welcomes the opportunity to engage and assist in these reviews and encourages other concerned citizens to engage as well. Let's help our elected officials make Collingwood a better community for everyone by protecting our pristine shoreline areas!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW REPORT ILLUSTRATES SHORTCOMINGS IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDY Local Residents Ask Council For New Study And Consultation Process Collingwood, ON Tuesday November 27, 2018 In an open letter to incoming Collingwood Town Councillors, local environmental group SOS Collingwood issued a request today that the incoming Town Council require a new Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the controversy ladened Living Waters/Bear Estate development project. I...n support of its request, SOS Collingwood delivered a recently completed peer review of the developer funded EIS Update submitted in support of the project back in November 2017. The peer review report was prepared by Barrie-based Birks Natural Heritage Consultants Inc.. SOS Collingwood has been raising concerns about the proposed development since local residents became aware in June 2018 that an unannounced plan to more than double the intensity of use on the sensitive waterfront site was quietly working its way through the old Town Council. In its open letter to Council, SOS Collingwood emphasized that the new Birks peer review concluded that the developer’s EIS Update only provided a very high-level site characterization of the proposed development and that its assessment of impact to adjacent natural heritage features was generally lacking. As SOS Collingwood Director and spokesperson Jeff Newton noted, The Birks’ report confirms what SOS Collingwood has been saying for some time, the developer’s EIS Update has significant gaps. The peer review identified no fewer than nine deficiencies that would need to be addressed to complete a thorough ecological impact assessment. As there are so many deficiencies and the adjacent lands are so environmentally sensitive, SOS Collingwood believes the best course of action is to prepare a completely new study, added Newton. SOS Collingwood also stressed that its concerns with the project were not limited to its environmental impact assessment. They noted that the development proposal also fails to comply in many areas with the Town’s Official Plan, Zoning Bylaw and Waterfront Master Plan. And, with improved transparency and accountability being key issues in the recent municipal election campaign, SOS Collingwood believes its time local residents were provided with a meaningful and open consultation process on major projects of this nature. We’ve said it many times before, SOS Collingwood is not opposed to development, stated Newton. But we strongly believe that all development must conform to the Official Plan and the Zoning Bylaw, that special care must be applied to development near our sensitive wetland areas, and that local residents must be provided a voice in the process. "Our letter to the incoming Council offers to work collaboratively on the creation of that open consultation process. We hope they take us up on that offer, added Newton. To learn more, please visit www.soscollingwood.ca See more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW REPORT ILLUSTRATES SHORTCOMINGS IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDY Local Residents Ask Council For New Study And Consultation Process ... Collingwood, ON Tuesday November 27, 2018 In an open letter to incoming Collingwood Town Councillors, local environmental group SOS Collingwood issued a request today that the incoming Town Council require a new Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the controversy ladened Living Waters/Bear Estate development project. In support of its request, SOS Collingwood delivered a recently completed peer review of the developer funded EIS Update submitted in support of the project back in November 2017. The peer review report was prepared by Barrie-based Birks Natural Heritage Consultants Inc.. SOS Collingwood has been raising concerns about the proposed development since local residents became aware in June 2018 that an unannounced plan to more than double the intensity of use on the sensitive waterfront site was quietly working its way through the old Town Council. In its open letter to Council, SOS Collingwood emphasized that the new Birks peer review concluded that the developer’s EIS Update only provided a very high-level site characterization of the proposed development and that its assessment of impact to adjacent natural heritage features was generally lacking. As SOS Collingwood Director and spokesperson Jeff Newton noted, The Birks’ report confirms what SOS Collingwood has been saying for some time, the developer’s EIS Update has significant gaps. The peer review identified no fewer than nine deficiencies that would need to be addressed to complete a thorough ecological impact assessment. As there are so many deficiencies and the adjacent lands are so environmentally sensitive, SOS Collingwood believes the best course of action is to prepare a completely new study, added Newton. SOS Collingwood also stressed that its concerns with the project were not limited to its environmental impact assessment. They noted that the development proposal also fails to comply in many areas with the Town’s Official Plan, Zoning Bylaw and Waterfront Master Plan. And, with improved transparency and accountability being key issues in the recent municipal election campaign, SOS Collingwood believes its time local residents were provided with a meaningful and open consultation process on major projects of this nature. We’ve said it many times before, SOS Collingwood is not opposed to development, stated Newton. But we strongly believe that all development must conform to the Official Plan and the Zoning Bylaw, that special care must be applied to development near our sensitive wetland areas, and that local residents must be provided a voice in the process. "Our letter to the incoming Council offers to work collaboratively on the creation of that open consultation process. We hope they take us up on that offer, added Newton. To learn more, please visit www.soscollingwood.ca

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