A community near Woodstock wants to (in essence) grow closer to Woodstock
By Mark Schadenberg
The Rankin Family has a
terrific song called Borders And Time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBDugTbHNww).
As we know, over time borders and boundaries move, and certainly time never
stands still.
Brantford currently has
boundary issues.
When reporter Hugo
Rodrigues pulled up stakes at The Woodstock Sentinel-Review it was not a great
day for Oxford media circles, but the shift is working well for Sun Media as
Hugo is now penning for the Sun’s Brantford Expositor.
Local politics can always
be an intricate and spiderweb-like bailiwick for a reporter as two parties
often have their own agenda and lager heads prevail. What? A controversial impasse
would be the actual result.
This is occurring
currently down the 403 from Woodstock as a boundary battle has Brant versus
Brantford with a provincial mediator (facilitator) owning the gavel, named
Paula Dill.
In Oxford, Woodstock owns
three seats at county council, while the other seven are swivelled by mayors of
Tillsonburg, Ingersoll and the five townships. The warden (Don McKay is mayor
of East-Zorra Tavistock) is the chairperson.
The tale is much different
in the Brantford area as Brant County, which includes Paris and Burford, has
one mayor (Ron Eddy) and Brantford has its own mayor (Chris Friel). Two
different elected governments. If Friel wants to attend the county meetings, he
is an observer and vice versa for Eddy in Brantford.
Those with ribbons of red (tape)
are also in two different factions as Brant County has a CAO (Paul Emerson) and
so does Brantford (Ted Salisbury).
The problem? Brantford is
busting at the seams and for the city to add a notch in its belt to in fact
grow its britches, it will require a boundary adjustment.
The trembling volcano
called Brantford wants to expand both south and west as its lava gobbles toward
Burford and Paris.
Rodrigues, and fellow
scribe Michael-Allen Marion of the Expositor, are privileged to be the authors
of this chess match where landowners – farmers mostly I’m guessing – are the
pawns. Up for grabs is almost 5,000 acres. If it eventually becomes part of
Brantford – a master plan adjustment would quickly flip many land uses to
either residential or commercial (factories for employment), except those
portions protected as ponds and bogs.
Brantford has two
different preferred areas to expand – southwest toward Paris and the Governor’s
Road, and west toward Burford (but not that far) up to the Rest Acres Road (see
the map).
None of this would happen
overnight, as a link below written by Marion indicates there is a 21-year
timetable. However, at the same time, Brantford – it would appear – desires at
least some expansion now as the city wants to grow beyond its current borders
and 90,000 (plus) population.
“A full agreement could be prepared within the next month or so,”
Brantford city solicitor Christopher Cooper said in one Expositor piece. “We
will try and advance it as quickly as possible… so an agreement can be signed
and presented to council.”
Some of the land transfers could begin as early as 2014 if Brantford
wins the tug-of-war. It would appear from perusing the press that Brantford
already has a suggested plan to share taxes with Brant County for a 10-year
period, with the number (amount divided up to the county folks) eventually
dwindling to zero.
The framework for any formal re-drawing of the borders must be done by
referring to the Ontario Municipal Act.
Naturally, there are many other factors in the Brant area in general,
including consulting Six Nations.
At the end of the analysis it is an intricate set of negotiations
involving many parties with many important topics of debate to include the current
landowners and land usuage, scheduled public meetings (with many easels,
topographical maps and charts), money changing hands (taxes), timetable, the
environment (Grand River conservation folks), and then if all sides agree,
obtaining the thumbs-up from the provincial government.
Note: According to the Expositor, the map here was based on discussions
in late 2012. This blog is by no means an attempt to accumulate information from various
Expositor stories, it simply is a quick glimpse at the lengthy process facing
the Brantford area over the next few years as it attempts to expand from its
current size. This is an outside observation only.
THE LINKS:
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2013/10/11/progress-reported-on-phased-approach-to-boundary-changes
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas
St, Woodstock
(519) 537-1553,
cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
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