The following letter was sent to the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula.
Dear Clerk,
We reside in the Tobermory area and pay taxes to the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula.
We object to the proposed development of two new parking lots on Hay Bay Rd west of Hwy 6 to provide for a total of 750 new parking spaces. We have just learned of the applications of Blue Heron and Bruce Anchor to do this.
All the cars using these proposed lots would have to go through the Hwy 6/Hay Bay Rd/Head Street intersection with no traffic controls or left turn lanes. Further the buses serving these proposed lots will add to the congestion. All three streets are two lane, one in each direction. There are often long lineups of cars trying to navigate this intersection and into the town center even before 750 additional parking spaces are added.
We understand that council may pass a zoning bylaw amendment at the July 12th council meeting allowing both of the proposed parking lots without giving any consideration to the improvements needed to the intersection to handle the additional traffic generated by the increased parking. Nor has council consulted with the residents/tax payers living on Hay Bay Road.
The matter should be deferred until all necessary information is received and considered from interested parties such as the MTO, police, fire and ambulance services. A project impact study should be made prior to council making a decision on these applications. We object to the passing of the zoning bylaw amendment at this time.
The addition of people and traffic only benefits the tour boat industry. They already dictate what happens in the town and on the water in the Marine Park. More tourist volume is detrimental to Northern Bruce. We the tax payers are shut out of all the sites of the Northern Bruce we have visited in the past.
Please advise whether the zoning bylaw amendment will be deferred by council on the 12th.
Respectfully,
Jim & Mary Blight
Tobermory
