I strongly oppose Bill 23! …

I strongly oppose Bill 23! The City of London and the residents of London have spent a lot of time creating The London Plan - a vision for London going forward. Bill 23 proposes amendments to the provincial Planning Act. One of the most concerning amendments is the ability for the provincial government to impose sprawl on municipalities. The provincial government already has the ability to do this if there is ‘an adverse effect on provincial issues’ as defined by the Provincial Policy Statement. It also removes the ability for the municipality to correct these situations once notified.
Ordinary people like me will lose rights. No longer will we see notices for future development. No longer will we have the right to appeal municipal planning decisions.
Already, municipalities are experiencing how difficult it is to maintain urban infrastructure under their current limits of revenue generation. We know how long (and expensive) it is to upgrade sewer and water infrastructure as we see the City of London struggle for years to make repairs to the downtown. We don’t need more infrastructure that will over time add to this burden. By arbitrarily reducing the amount of development charges that can be assessed to developers, it handcuffs municipalities to make development pay for itself. The reduced development charges will translate into higher taxes without any guarantee that developers won’t just pocket additional profits and continue to sell or rent at the existing market prices. Instead, we will have large, luxury housing built on the fringes of the city that is financed off the backs of lower income residents through their property tax bills.
Bill 23 needs to be revoked. Building low-density housing on the periphery of existing urban growth boundaries will lead to new infrastructure being required that will be more expensive for municipalities to maintain overall, likely resulting in property tax hikes. Especially the case in areas where new infrastructure will be built over, or near natural heritage features like wetlands, and may be prone to flooding and other disasters under climate change.