MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is in response Tay ‘disappointed’ with Midland over marina development,' published June 25.
Dear Editor,
I have great respect for Mayor (Ted) Walker but in this case he's crying crocodile tears.
During the rezoning hearings almost every submission from Tay taxpayers was opposed. I can recall only one in support. This housing development should never have been approved.
Yes, Tay Township made some symbolic changes in response to resistance from Midland residents but these will do little to address the negatives associated with a community of short-term rentals at an already crowded tourist facility. This will assuredly have a negative impact on the quality of life of everyone in the vicinity, including current users of the marina and visitors to the nearby national park.
The mayor contends that these houses won't be short-term rentals, yet freely admits that they won't be used by current patrons. I wonder who will rent them if not tourists on a short-term basis? These are houses, not recreational vehicles. There are two on display, easily seen from Ogden's Beach Rd, each the size of a modest bungalow. So either it's a subdivision masquerading as a trailer park or a collection of short term rentals. Neither is acceptable. Or desirable.
Mayor Walker further contends that the marina corporation will control noise and nuisance.
What assurance does anyone have that this will be the case? Because corporations are universally honourable and benevolent when faced with the profit motive? This marina has changed ownership three times in the period we've lived in Tay. Will these vague promises survive another change of ownership?
Politicians regularly conflate the idea that what is in the best interests of the community with what is best for their administration. I believe the mayor is well-intentioned.
The fact is that cash-strapped, too small to exist, municipalities like Tay all too often make decisions for purely monetary reasons and disregard the wishes of the voters and taxpayers who put them in office. That's clearly the case here.
In essence Tay has handed Midland residents a steaming, hot bowl of, well use your imagination, and is now feigning injury because they don't want to swallow it.
Robert Codd
Port McNicoll
