As a resident of the…

As a resident of the Georgian Bay area my entire life I have concerns with the proposal of transferring the majority of these parklands to the Town of Wasaga Beach.
Born and raised in Collingwood, I loved growing up on Georgian Bay. In the early 2000s, I moved to Stayner when buying my first home. Purchasing in Collingwood was not financially feasible. Town development allowed gentrification and made pricing unreasonable. Four years ago, I bought a home in Wasaga Beach to be close to the water again. The trails, the water, YMCA, a new library, this area is perfect and has been for the last 4 years. There are many new homes still being built and even two high schools. I understand infrastructure needs to change, and areas revitalized. When it comes to the Ontario Parks beach areas, the cost of removing park land for town development will be at the expense of local property owners with further tax increases. There are many areas for the town to grow, the waterfront is not one of them. I was priced out of Collingwood and do not need to have this repeated.
Aside from the increases of financial strain on residents there are concerns with developing protected greenlands. There are many natural sand dunes, wildlife breading areas, and green spaces that would be gone. The nature trails in the area will no longer be natural if gentrification is allowed here.
The Town has changes coming to the "main end" with developing a section of the waterfront. This is a high tourist area and makes sense. A change of control of Nancy Island blends with this vision. More condos, apartments on the waterfront do not.