To the Editor,
I read with interest the additional incentives and expenditures that Empire Communities has offered to make so that Haldimand Council might more favourably consider their residential development plans for the Nanticoke Industrial Park.
The plan contains the same fatal flaw that ensured the much earlier developed community of Townsend would be a failure. Townsend never met its potential because the governments and the developers ignored the need to facilitate easy access to the urban hubs of Hamilton, Niagara, and the GTA.
If Empire wants to sweeten the pot they should temporarily shelve their development plans and invest in a widening of the transportation corridor between Caledonia and Nanticoke/Port Dover.
Their lack of foresight is astonishing. It is not the first time provincial and municipal governments have failed to see the writing on the wall. They allowed a rapid residential expansion in Binbrook, Ontario and paid little attention to the inadequacy of the service roads and Hwy #56. They resurfaced the Hwy. and then lowered the speed limit. Astonishing.
The success of a large scale increase in residential development in Nanticoke is contingent on widening Hwy #6 to four lanes from Caledonia to Port Dover. Nothing else will suffice.
J. Brian Gallagher,
Cayuga
