From May 2016, in response to the application to rezone the property at 510 Erbsville Rd in Waterloo from Agricultural to (Holding) Institutional and Green One, a group of voluntary residents sharing the common concerns started action to voice their concerns under the name, "Residents Opposing 510 Erbsillve Rd. Rezoning".
On June 26 2017, the City of Waterloo approved the above application and passed subsequently the Zoning By-Law No. 2017-052 to allow the property rezoning for spiritual use. For legal consideration and for operational conveniences, an organization, Waterloo West Community Association (“WWCA”) has been incorporated to represent the concerned residents. To continue with our objection to this property rezoning Bylaw of the City of Waterloo, an appeal was presented to the City Clerk for filing with Ontario Municipal Board (“OMB”).
Next,
WWCA is planning to secure a legal representative and hire professionals such as a land use planner and engineers effectively push our issues as raised in the appeal with OMB.
For that purpose and at this stage, we are campaigning for your STRONG financial support. Please be assured that all raised fund from you shall be used directly to hire a legal representative and professionals in the fields of land use planning, related engineering, and environment issues as we submitted in our appeal to OMB.
WWCA shall produce a weekly Financial Statements. Also, at any time you may request in written for a real time update of the number of donates and the fund total.
We suggest you provide your detailed contact information including your name, email address, mailing address, etc to fund510objection@gmail.com, for the following reasons:
We could issue a receipt to you
We could add you to our email list for future updates of the appeal progress.
Most important, if we were not able to raise enough fund to hire the above mentioned professionals, we could refund you of your donation in full.
For privacy and confidential reasons, your contact information shall not be made public (unless you specially make such authorization otherwise).
Fundraiser Target: $35,000 - $50,000
Deadline: September 30, 2017
How to make a donation:
1. Branch Deposit to the WWCA Bank Account:
Bank: TD
Account Name: Waterloo West Community Association
Account Number: 3659 5222299
(By cash, cheques or direct debit from your TD account)
2. E-transfer:
Email Address:
fund510objection@gmail.com
Let’s continue to work hand-in-hand and keep our community from disturbance.
Sincerely Yours,
Residents Opposing 510 Erbsillve Rd. Rezoning,
Incorporated as Waterloo West Community Association
Please find in the attached our appeal reasons to OMB:
Phase II: The rezoning of the land from Agricultural to Institutional represents an inappropriate use for the subject land which is designated Low Density Residential in the Official Plan. This is particularly true as the Applicant has expressed intentions to construct a new, larger spiritual building on the lands in the future. The matter of converting a single-detached house into a place of worship is premature before the whole project is evaluated for traffic, noise, parking, environmental concerns a functional servicing study, an urban design brief and site plan, sustainability etc. The City of Waterloo should not approve to rezone part of the lot without knowing what the rest of the lot will look like in terms of the Official Plan, Zoning for the whole site, Site Plan provisions etc.
The use of a Holding (“H”) provision with respect to the future proposal has the effect of approving a future place of worship while taking away the rights of concerned residents to voice their concerns or appeal it. A Holding (“H”) provision that effectively approves a larger future development (even though removal is subject to the completion of additional technical studies) is premature, inappropriate and does not represent good planning. Issues that are relevant to the suitability of the proposed zoning and that deal with potential impacts to others should not be left to a holding provision.
- Traffic concerns with respect to Erbsville Road;
- Parking concerns – lack of parking to accommodate proposed use;
- Noise concerns associated with special events and celebrations;
- Adequacy of services for proposed use;
- Wrong location;
- Decrease of Property Value; and
- Rezoning Trend Setting.
Phase I: The City of Waterloo permitted the existing structures to be used for spiritual uses before updated specifics whether they are of sufficient size or whether they conform with the building code for its proposed uses. This practice raised concerns in terms of health and safety of the uses proposed and the potential occupants, including, but not limited to the following aspects, emergency and fire plan, the building capacity, stormwater management, site access, sidewalk safety & turning vehicles issues, parking issue, and negative environmental impacts from the proposed septic tank.