CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). This letter is in response to a letter titled, ‘Collingwood shouldn't be asking for provincial bypass of zoning process,’ published May 9.
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I read with great interest the letter to the editor, ‘Collingwood shouldn't be asking for provincial bypass of zoning process.’
Council should seize this opportunity to bring greater good to Collingwood and the surrounding area. It needs to be a tri-party agreement between the province, the Town of Collingwood and the developers to bring a new hospital to Collingwood.
The province must recognize the need for a new hospital and that the lands are being donated. The sale of the existing hospital property would help offset the costs.
Town council has to recognize the need for industrial lands in Collingwood is very low. One only has to look outside of Collingwood to see the vast amount of industrial lands being developed up the Highway 400 corridor amongst other areas in the GTA.
If the new site for the hospital is approved without a minister’s zoning order rezoning, who will be responsible to extend the municipal services out to the site? An unwilling developer of industrial lands will have no interest. The developer should step up to service the hospital site for free. Other public benefits should be woven into the agreement.
Imagine the number of new jobs created.
I’ve had the pleasure to work with Mr. DiPoce before, along with many other land developers. They wish to be treated fairly and in a timely manner and in return they will give back to Collingwood. Just consider that Mr. DiPoce is willing to donate land for the hospital.
From my experience it has been done before and it can be done again.
It is time for the public and council to get behind a proposal like this, to explore the possibilities or we will be staring at dandelions in empty fields for decades.
Jody LaPlante
Collingwood
