Concerned group wants to save Barker's Bush

By Lindsay Grummett, Special to B-cause

On February 17th, representatives from Barker’s Bush addressed council with one clear goal: to prevent residential development growth in the Nith Peninsula woodlands and wetlands, and more specifically, to save Barker’s Bush.

The room was tense as Grace Larche and Lorna Nowicki-Prime took the floor to voice their concerns on the proposed residential development that is set to place over 400 homes in the Barker’s Bush area.

In addition to raising development concerns, the delegation requested that council hold public meetings before decisions are made for rezoning in order to better maintain green space in Brant County.

“Brant County is a collection of rural communities,” Larche said during her presentation. “If we are going to flourish as rural communities, all planning in the county needs to be driven by a clear vision of what we value about what makes us rural.”

County Budget still under debate

Brant County Council sat down last Thursday for its second 2010 budget planning session. At present, the county is proposing an operating budget of just over $35 million for the year, which represents an increase of 5 per cent to county tax payers.


Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Don Glassford explained that when things like anticipated increases in revenues and average home values – up $13,000 from $227,000 in 2009 to $240,000 in 2010 - are taken into account, the tax increase actually levels off at 3 per cent.

This is in line with the 2009 budget in which tax payers saw a final increase of 3.55 per cent.

Brant County Official Plan Comments

On December 10th, Brant County Council met for a special meeting to present the final draft of its Official Plan and seek feedback from the community. In total, 22 delegations presented at the meeting. Community members raised a number of concerns including the desire to have definitions within the plan clarified and the request to have boundaries on particular tracts of land revised. The issue that received the most public input was the future of development in the Cainsville area. Click below to read the transcribed comments from three speakers.