MAD Executive Delegates In Favour Of Refusal

Good afternoon,

My name is Cynthia Shanahan. I represent my family, and Millcroft Against Bad Development. Our house is one of the original homes built in Millcroft, in 1986. So we’re going back 40 years.

It is a sad day when we are here again — delegating, once more, against a tragic development.

Why the use of the word “tragic”?

Tragic, because flooding already exists in Millcroft.

Tragic, because this City, in the 1980’s, approved the Millcroft subdivision with Open Space specifically because of its stormwater management.

Tragic, because in 2014 this City, specifically Millcroft, lived through one of its most devastating floods — one that took fundraising to bring 3,500 people back into their homes. MABD advocate, Order of Canada member, Ron Foxcroft chaired this committee. We know flooding all too well. So does Mr. Foxcroft. We do not want to have the need to resurrect this committee again.

Tragic, because we know better. Building on or near a floodplain is never smart development.

Tragic, because homeowners in Millcroft cannot obtain overland water insurance before this application, or if they do, it’s at a very expensive price.

Tragic, because it only increases the risk of flooding — it does not reduce it.

Tragic, because the engineered solutions the developer presented at the OLT for Phase 1 exist only on paper. It’s normally used in commercial settings. They have never been tested in a residential setting — condominium-managed, and built under roads.

Tragic, because the developer has already left a bruise on this neighbourhood. It is hard to look at what was once a manicured, treed property and see it in the condition it's in today.

Tragic, because this application proposes demolishing two homes to make way for private roads. Ask yourselves: how would you like to become the next-door neighbour, or the neighbour across the street, who wakes up to find their home is now on a corner lot beside a road — or facing headlights sweeping through their windows every night?

Tragic, because hardscaping an entire property — including the footprint of those two demolished homes — is even on the table, when this City's own bylaws regularly enforce hardscape-to-softscape ratios everywhere else within its borders. Residents face this ratio when widening their driveways, not making a road.

Tragic, because the construction will affect 4,500 families, for years. Millcroft has only six entrances. There is not a single home in this neighbourhood that construction, traffic, noise, dust, and the loss of greenspace will not touch.

What is not tragic about this proposed development? We looked really hard. We cannot find one positive attribute.

So I'll say only this: you unanimously voted NO to phase 1, now follow the staff recommendation for phase 2, and stand by the decision this City made more than forty years ago — long before climate change became the crisis it is today —say no to this tragic development.

Thank you.