I understand that you want…

I understand that you want and need to build more housing stock in Ontario. However, your approach to eliminating R1 zoning - single detached family homes - will ruin the heritage value of countless neighbourhoods, cast back yards into shadow, reduce much needed green space, and increase all the problems - such as traffic and noise - that come with this sort of density.

In the meantime, there are better alternatives, such as high- and mid-rise condos and apartment buildings near public transit that would be more appealing to the young, who may not yet need a car and who enjoy the excitement of densely populated neighbourhoods, as well as seniors, who may no longer have a car and don't want the trouble of maintaining a yard and a house.

And at the same time, working people are increasingly working from home or working from a distributed hub. So the issues related to transit, traffic pollution and traffic congestion may be resolving themselves. People may be able to live further from what before was the all-important "centre." This means there are more opportunities for building neighbourhoods of R1 houses, or townhouses, further out of the city, as well as high- and mid-rise buildings in those decentralized locations, that are - like downtown - close to public transit.

The province needs to be more creative in thinking about cities, satellite cities, and towns of the future. To the extent possible, I would like to see these neighbourhoods centred around existing heritage structures, with a kind of "village green" concept, each with its own water feature that might double as a sediment basin or stormwater management system.

So, there are options and getting rid of existing neighbourhoods is not a good one. If the Ford government goes forward with its current plans, it will be a legacy that the Ford government will carry, with shame, forever. There's really no going back once the older neighbourhoods have been destroyed.