The employment lands located…

The employment lands located in the Village of Virgil in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake are disconnected from highways, railways, waterways, and other forms of connections for the ease of movement of goods. Some of the lands in the area have never developed (1287, 1313 & 1301 Niagara Stone Road due to the fact that the lands are so isolated from the types of good movement connections that are needed to support industrial uses.

The region has designated the virgil business park as an employment area in the mcr which is not an appropriate designation for this area. This area has sat empty with a high turnover of users due to its isolated location. An employment area designation would sterilize this area for the future and use up employment allocation that would be better located in areas closer to highways and railways.

This area should remain as it is so that there is flexibility to meet market changes in the future if the unused lands are never used for employment uses.

The Village of Virgil is also surrounded by greenbelt. There is a minimal chance that this village will ever grow beyond its current boundaries. So the limited lands within the boundary should remain flexible to meet the demands of the future residents.

The Town has a need for more residential housing. Based on land use compatibility studies, the lands that are not developed could convert to residential in the future to meet the needs of the community in the future. If the lands are designed employment area, the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of the community are taken away and the town will have vacant urban lands for a very long time.

A conversion study was completed to show that these lands are better used to meet the demands for residential homes in the Town. The region ignored this work and actually downgraded the amount of growth allocated to the town because for political reasons, the town does not want any development. The politics have outrun good land use planning in this case.