Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[tomh009]

We're still talking about Breslau, and the next 15 years.  What I worry about, is that development isn't going to end at Breslau after 15 or 20 years, it'll keep going, 15-30 years beyond that, the 15 km from the edge of Breslau to the edge of Guelph, will get filled with homes, with similar development patterns.  If there is a GO station in Breslau, that certainly won't change development patterns 8 KMs away.  Maybe there will be more GO stations built, I don't know, but without planning, all there will be is the freeway.

Dan, you're worrying about what will happen without planning.  But it's a fact that we do have planning: the region, the cities and the townships all have official plans.  All of these are fundamentally aligned in protecting farmland, containing urban sprawl, focusing development only in specific areas and promoting intensification (within the cities). 

It could certainly happen that thousands and thousands of single-family homes will be built in new subdivisions between Kitchener and Guelph.  But in order for that to happen, both the townships and the region will need to change direction, revise their development policies and update their official plans.  At this time no one -- not the cities, not the townships, not the region -- has indicated any desire or intent to do that, so I am not expecting it to happen.

Policies and plans can indeed be changed later.  But so can any legislation, or even the constitution.  At this point in time I have trust in our region, our cities and our townships that they indeed have the right direction, and they intend to stay with it.  Of course, if you cannot trust them to do that, then it's a whole different situation.