On Thursday, October 24th, Rezoning Clarington held another successful Information Session at Faith United Church in Courtice with a lot of new attendees joining us. We encourage you to keep informing your neighbours, family and friends about this issue. We know there are still landowners in rural Clarington who are not aware of expanded environmentally protected land designations (EP) that affects their property.
At our Information Session, we heard from the Council Members Neal, Trail, Jones, Hooper and Anderson. Councillor Zwart, who has attended every one of our sessions, sent her regrets explaining she would be out of town related to her Municipal work.
Councillor Joe Neal gave an update on how Clarington Council has been working on this issue. He also reviewed a Motion he was planning to introduce at the October 28th Full Council Meeting. The Motion asked that the mapping be revised to include only the Provincially mandated EP areas, that any designations beyond that be brought to Council for review and for staff to continue working on correcting errors in the mapping. He was voted down at the October 28th meeting and was not able to introduce the Motion to re-do the map.
As Councillors Neal, Traill and Jones continue their work trying to have the mapping revised to correct errors, limited to mandated designated areas and to give Council the oversight on any non-mandated designated EP lands, we must continue to support their efforts.
We will continue to push for notification to ALL affected landowners directly and the continuation of free site visits to correct any mapping errors.
It has been reported that the Municipality has only received 61 requests for site visits. If you do not understand why your land or any part of your property has been designated EP, please contact the Municipal Planning Department at ZoneClarington@clarington.net or (905) 623-3379 extension 2415. Remember to specifically ask for a site visit.
It was also reported that only 95 letters of concern have been sent to the Municipality. To express your views and ask questions of your local Councillor email, write letters or ask for a meeting.
Email addresses: Councillor’s email addresses are the first initial of their first name, followed by their last name, and ending in @clarington.net. Example: Councillor Jane Doe – jdoe@clarington.net.
Clarington Municipality phone number: 905-623-3379
Mailing address: To address letters to the Mayor and all Councillors:
To Mayor Foster, Members of Council and the Municipal Clerk
40 Temperance Street
Bowmanville, Ontario
L1C 3A6
If you would like your letter to be recorded and added to the Agenda of a Council or Committee Meeting include the following:
“Please note: I request to have this letter added to the next Council or Planning Committee Meeting Meeting Agenda”
By asking for your letter to be recorded, you should be notified by the Municipality of further developments. A letter on record in which you registered your concerns or a delegation at a public meeting will be required to make any further appeals, if you should choose to appeal the Municipality’s ruling. Please check: https://www.ontario.ca/document/citizens-guide-land-use-planning/local-planning-appeal-tribunal.
We want to thank those who continue to support Rezoning Clarington, a group of volunteer individual landowners, who are working to get you more information, keep you updated, organize Information Sessions, research the many factors related to this issue, and meet with other organizations, our local MPPs and relevant Provincial Ministers.
Your generous donations have enabled us to send out emails, maintain our website and meet the expenses of mailings and town hall meetings.
Thank you for this support and thanks to so many of you who have attended our sessions, numerous Clarington Planning and Developments Committee meetings and Full Council meetings.
-Gord