Mayor Amy Martin made one thing clear at the top of her latest social media post – that after a vote of council occurs it’s their responsibility to get on board and support the wishes of council.
With that being said, she did express some concerns regarding a recent decision regarding where council turned down a development at the corner of Norfolk Street and Decou road, across the road from Sobeys, that would have commercial space on the bottom and residential space on top.
The public expressed their concern on the development online with many councillors echoing those same concerns at council chambers.
While Martin understands the concern, the issue at hand for Martin is that for months there has also been public pushback against the idea of expanding the urban boundary to allow for more housing as well.
So Martin was left wondering if the county can’t expand the urban boundary to create more homes and they get the same push back when a larger developments is proposed in urban Norfolk – where can homes be built to meet the growing demand?
Martin said this development came forward with a chance to slightly ease the tight rental crunch in the county and it was turned away in a split 5-4 decision.
Martin said, when all is said and done, Simcoe will probably still end up seeing the development happen if after council’s reject.
The only difference is, it’ll cost the county more money.
The full video can be found here.
Written by Matt LeBlanc