Dear Editor:
It’s coming, folks, whether we like it or not. Apparently Centre Wellington council has approved a controversial new building for downtown Fergus sometime soon.
And if local residents don’t like the idea, well, it’s just too bad. The message is: don’t bother raising any more concerns, because “it is staff’s opinion that the proposed development is consistent with relevant planning policy.”
Huh? What about our opinion?
At a public meeting some months ago, many of us voiced objections to the design of this building, proposed for the corner of St. Andrew Street East and Gowrie.
At five storeys, it will be alarmingly big (towering over every other building in the area – taller in fact that anything in downtown Fergus). It will require a change in zoning bylaws. And as for the problem that locals never stop talking about (parking), only 13 spaces will be allocated for 17 apartment units, in an area of downtown where it’s already a nightmare to find anywhere to leave your car.
But were our concerns heard? Was there any scaling down of this proposal? No. The developer apparently submitted a new proposal to council (which they didn’t bother to inform us about.)
And this immensely long document certainly gussies up the original proposal with a few niceties like the addition of “sandy coloured stone to match surrounding buildings.” But it’s still basically still the same: five storeys on a too-small lot, a citified-looking building that will be totally out of character in our historic town – and not enough parking. The arrogance of our council in rubber-stamping this proposal beggars belief.
Sonia Day,
Fergus
*Editor’s note: There are 13 parking spaces on the site of the apartment building, plus another nine across the road, for a total of 22 for this development.