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Farmland conversion and landfill sites
(05-02-2024, 05:00 AM)Xaviere001 Wrote: I totally get your concerns, but it might be healthy to see the otherside of the situation,

To me it seems like the Region of Waterloo and Wilmot Township are teaming up to get some land ready for development and job opportunities. They want to make these areas "shovel-ready," which means they're all set for businesses to come in and start building stuff. This is part of their plan to support the growth of Waterloo Region as more people move in over the years. They're hoping to attract investments and create more job opportunities as the area gets bigger.

However, the Region's most recent official plan review makes no mention of this area, nor the need for additional employment lands outside what was already outlined in the review - so why the seemingly quick shift in plans? And the expropriation part still seems problematic in this scenario. If the Region had clearly made it known there was a need for more employment lands and were not relying on expropriation to obtain 'needed lands', I think I'd have a very different take on this issue.
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(05-02-2024, 06:37 PM)dtkmelissa Wrote: However, the Region's most recent official plan review makes no mention of this area, nor the need for additional employment lands outside what was already outlined in the review - so why the seemingly quick shift in plans? And the expropriation part still seems problematic in this scenario. If the Region had clearly made it known there was a need for more employment lands and were not relying on expropriation to obtain 'needed lands', I think I'd have a very different take on this issue.

And why the NDAs, which are really unusual at the regional level? That makes me think the provincial government was (and maybe still is) driving this initiative.
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Wilmot farmers stand firm as region tries to divide them
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[url=https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/wilmot-farmers-stand-firm-as-region-tries-to-divide-them/article_ed3596f5-7029-50aa-a343-b544f0425266.html]


Quote:The Wilmot Township farmers at the centre of a controversial land assembly rejected approaches from the Region of Waterloo for one-on-one meetings.

After sending a handwritten note and a fact sheet to each farmer, Matthew Chandy, the region’s head of economic development, asked the farmers to reach out any time.

But the six farmers responded — speak to our lawyer.

“We are willing to meet, but the region has to meet with all of the land owners, together,“ said Stewart Schneider, a dairy farmer on Nafziger Road. “We all laughed when we saw it.“



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Irony in today's e-Record.  Nimby's complaining about a proposal to put fruit processing and farm worker residential facilities on land being used as an orchard next to the St Jacobs market.  So complaints when farmland is taken out of production, and complaints when farmland is used for food production.
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(07-14-2024, 09:11 AM)panamaniac Wrote: Irony in today's e-Record.  Nimby's complaining about a proposal to put fruit processing and farm worker residential facilities on land being used as an orchard next to the St Jacobs market.  So complaints when farmland is taken out of production, and complaints when farmland is used for food production.

The Record article quoted a local resident worrying about the impact of additional truck traffic because of the fruit processing on site. And yet, those fruit get shipped out by truck today, and if the processing facility is built, those same fruit will still be shipped out by truck, albeit after processing. Where is that additional truck traffic coming from? Hello?

In addition, there is traffic today to bring their seasonal workers to the farm in the morning and take them back at night. This would be eliminated if they can live on the farm.
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(07-14-2024, 02:43 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(07-14-2024, 09:11 AM)panamaniac Wrote: Irony in today's e-Record.  Nimby's complaining about a proposal to put fruit processing and farm worker residential facilities on land being used as an orchard next to the St Jacobs market.  So complaints when farmland is taken out of production, and complaints when farmland is used for food production.

The Record article quoted a local resident worrying about the impact of additional truck traffic because of the fruit processing on site. And yet, those fruit get shipped out by truck today, and if the processing facility is built, those same fruit will still be shipped out by truck, albeit after processing. Where is that additional truck traffic coming from? Hello?

In addition, there is traffic today to bring their seasonal workers to the farm in the morning and take them back at night. This would be eliminated if they can live on the farm.

In other news, I didn't realize you could grow apricots commercially in Waterloo Region.  Climate change in action?  But yum!
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(07-14-2024, 02:43 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(07-14-2024, 09:11 AM)panamaniac Wrote: Irony in today's e-Record.  Nimby's complaining about a proposal to put fruit processing and farm worker residential facilities on land being used as an orchard next to the St Jacobs market.  So complaints when farmland is taken out of production, and complaints when farmland is used for food production.

The Record article quoted a local resident worrying about the impact of additional truck traffic because of the fruit processing on site. And yet, those fruit get shipped out by truck today, and if the processing facility is built, those same fruit will still be shipped out by truck, albeit after processing. Where is that additional truck traffic coming from? Hello?

Depending on what the processing is, the truck traffic could actually drop. I don’t know what they’re growing or what the processing is, but imagine that they are proposing to dry apricots. I’m pretty sure way more dried apricots will fit on a truck than fresh ones. Also this avoids shipping all that water.
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Martin's either has additional orchards throughout the Region or contracts to buy apples from other orchards in the Region. I would expect truck traffic to increase, not the least because this proposal will be removing some trees and adding processing capacity.
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(07-16-2024, 07:49 AM)nms Wrote: Martin's either has additional orchards throughout the Region or contracts to buy apples from other orchards in the Region.  I would expect truck traffic to increase, not the least because this proposal will be removing some trees and adding processing capacity.

This proposal is not for Martin's, though.
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(07-16-2024, 02:23 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(07-16-2024, 07:49 AM)nms Wrote: Martin's either has additional orchards throughout the Region or contracts to buy apples from other orchards in the Region.  I would expect truck traffic to increase, not the least because this proposal will be removing some trees and adding processing capacity.

This proposal is not for Martin's, though.

My mistake. Given that the two properties are adjacent, I assumed that there was a connection.  A quick look at Prica Orchard's website doesn't show any connection between the two.  

That being said, I do know that the various major operators work in a spirit of cooperation, especially in times of crisis.  I seem to recall that when one of the major operators had a warehouse burn down close to or during harvest season, the others stepped in to offer storage capacity to allow their harvest to continue.
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So, the Region now owns almost a third of the Wilmot site proposed for industrial land. according to Redman.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...d63e4.html
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(07-18-2024, 06:12 PM)panamaniac Wrote: So, the Region now owns almost a third of the Wilmot site proposed for industrial land. according to Redman.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...d63e4.html


The regions owned this for awhile. A bunch of engineering work has been happening on the site for about a month now.
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(07-18-2024, 08:37 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote:
(07-18-2024, 06:12 PM)panamaniac Wrote: So, the Region now owns almost a third of the Wilmot site proposed for industrial land. according to Redman.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...d63e4.html


The regions owned this for awhile. A bunch of engineering work has been happening on the site for about a month now.

That seems to make all the reporting about acquiring 770 acres rather misleading.
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(07-19-2024, 02:42 PM)panamaniac Wrote:
(07-18-2024, 08:37 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote: The regions owned this for awhile. A bunch of engineering work has been happening on the site for about a month now.

That seems to make all the reporting about acquiring 770 acres rather misleading.

The Region still doesn't own all of it but the portion they own has had work completed (field work, lab work, etc), more work would occur once more parcels of land are owned.
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Very concerning that Redman and the Region went ahead and destroyed the fields for their project. While I do understand the why - it made no sense to destroy all that corn. Harvested before the destruction, this could have been feed for farm animals. Wait a few weeks, you would have had enough of a crop to make 2.5 million box of cornflakes (400g). Basically enough food to feed every single resident in the region (625,000) for 3 or 4 days. That's a lot.

We have poor leadership from our chairman (Redman) as well at the so-called big city mayors who also should have known better. They are all small minded people who don't care about the regions residents at all.

Disgusting.
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