Had the OMB not existed at the time of the Highland "agreement" between the parties it is conceivable that this development would not take place, or if done so, on a greatly reduced scale.
So the rape of Aurora land might have been negligible.
But leaving future development to local councils with little or no oversight might be even worse.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 14 June 2017 at 13:43
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The golf course was never "Aurora land". It has always been privately owned . Before a golf course, it was a farm on the outside edge of Aurora in King Township.
Homes abutting the erstwhile golf course came later but have similar history.
The Nesbitt family were never accused of "raping" the land when the golf course was built.
They were not accused of being accessory to "rape" when they sold the land to Joe Shaw,
who was a developer at the time. He built a beautiful club house that was an asset to the community for many years . Nesbitt's built two more golf courses Westview and St. Andrew's
The town continued to grow out into the countryside . I'm certain, the seven-hundred and fifty families who bought homes in Regency Acres were glad of that.
I raised my family here. Golf Glen subdivision was a small fill-in development between Regency and the golf course.
Nobody objected to Regency Acres.
Nobody objected to Golf Glen.
Instead of being developed ,the golf course continued for half a century longer.
Now that planned fill-in development is compared to the land being "raped".
There is nothing logical or reasonable about that.
But it's not just illogical or unreasonable.
Community interest is nowhere reflected in opposition to vacant serviced land being developed.
The opposite is true.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting historical interlude.
The Golf Glen lands were always privately owned. The reference to "Aurora land" is its location, not its title.
But a growing population, an exploding population, has to be located somewhere. 100 or so homes are just a drop in the bucket to provide for the approximately 25,000 population influx that is provincially planned for poor, dear "our town."
There is only a finite amount of land, unless you happen to be Holland, Singapore or China, where in-filling is really filling in.
The luxury days of single family homes are at an end and future residential accommodation might have to involve 3, 4 or 5 story buildings. That is the only way baseball diamonds or other recreational facilities can be provided for our children, or for ourselves.