A view spanning 50 years

My parents bought land in Terra Cotta in 1970 and built a home on it. We purchased the property from them in 1980 and have owned it ever since, still living here today. We have observed the changes in the community over 50 years. Our daughter and son-in-law now live here with us and will be the third generation on the property. We are deeply interested in the quality of life in Caledon, realizing that nothing ever remains exactly the same where population is increasing. That said, we look forward to seeing the beauty, peace and rural nature of the area, preserved. We have one concern that we want to see addressed in the new plan - aggregate mining.

Mr. Dick has made his living on aggregate and we do not begrudge him that. However, we want to be assured that the win at the OMB on his property on the northeast corner of Olde Base Line Road and Winston Churchill will be preserved. The former owner of that beautiful farm with its century home would not have sold it to him in a hundred years (literally) if she had known it was purchased to be mined for its aggregate. That was not the understanding she was given at the time of the sale. Our community gathered together to fight the mining of the property, located in the environmentally sensitive Niagara Escarpment. We can't even replace an elevated deck without three levels of approval, but the massive ripping of the escarpment proposed by Mr. Dick was seriously considered, and only after the expenditure of millions of dollars by the community residents, defeated. That circumstance occurred despite the property not being designated for aggregate extraction. Imagine what the fight and outcome would have looked like if he had even a modicum of support from the Caledon Master Plan. We do not doubt for a minute that Mr. Dick will be looking to get that property included in the plan as a future aggregate mine, and if successful, will go to the OMB to seek to open the site notwithstanding the last decision. Please do not entertain any submission of his company to get it included in the new plan as a future aggregate mining site, no matter how many community events he chooses to contribute financially to. He has already erected an ugly steel equipment building similar to those on his other pit properties, and stores large earth-moving equipment there, equipment not needed on a horse farm. His goal is transparent. He will argue jobs and tax revenue and any number of the same arguments his employees have trotted out time and again on his other sites.

We love this community. We look forward to participating in the planning process and hope to see a plan developed that reflects and preserves the many features that we now enjoy.