Countryside Line has been a…

Countryside Line has been a hard boundary that protects Waterloo Region’s groundwater, farmland, and natural areas for generations to come. Development here will not help create more housing, nor will it help with affordability. These lands are out at the edge of the countryside, with no infrastructure to service them. It would be ridiculous to build in these areas before we have used up the vacant land in our existing urban boundary.

Waterloo Region has shown that we can build lots of housing fast, exceeding our housing targets and planning for even more. We don’t need to sacrifice the countryside or expand our urban boundary to do that.

Sprawling neighbourhoods need services whereas inner city neighbourhoods services can be improved rather than building from the ground up. There are plenty of parking lots and vacant space that are not only seldom used but contribute to stress on wastewater management. Once good farmland and greenspaces get paved and torn up they are nearly impossible to restore.

Removing parking lots makes vehicular transit less accomodated. The harder it is to get services, and the more spread out neighbourhoods are the more we have to rely on cars. Let's improve our transit and preserve green space and increase housing density.

Please stop expanding housing for the benefit of investors. Affordable housing is not a commodity. Please. It's short-sighted. For future generations we need to be thoughtful. Building more doesn't actually lead to less demand. Improving what we have does. Let's be thoughtful about this.