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07 | 06 | 2013 VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 27
COW WHISPERER TAKES HIS SKILLS ON THE ROAD LIVING HERE PAGE 24
COMMENT PAGE 8
HAVING A DEBATE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY
OMB appeal attempts to break Breslau stalemate
LRT plan means changes for Waterloo Central Railway Council renews lease for another year, but loss of access to tracks will bring large expenses for non-profit group
Thomasfield Homes wants to see some movement on its longstanding development plans
ELENA MAYSTRUK
STEVE KANNON The development picture in Breslau got a little more convoluted last week, as a developer launched an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board, citing delays to its plans for expansion in the village. The delays, however, stem in part from a series of other legal wranglings. Thomasfield Homes is fast running out of space at its current subdivision in Breslau, Hopewell Heights. Its plans for development on adjacent land, in the works for more than half a dozen years, have been stalled during more than two years of legal battles over how much new development should take place in Waterloo Region. The region’s newly-approved Official Plan (ROP) is the subject of an appeal at the OMB, meaning the previous Regional Official Policies Plan is still in force. That document limits growth in Breslau to 1,250 units, a number that has almost been maxed out by recent development in the OMB | 2
Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society president Ross White, seen here at the St. Jacobs workshop, worries about what the region’s LRT plans will mean for the organization. [ELENA MAYSTRUK / THE OBSERVER]
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Along with a sizable bill for taxpayers, Waterloo Region’s light rail transit scheme comes with a price for the St. Jacobs-based Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society. New track configurations and traffic means the Waterloo Central Railway will be displaced from its Waterloo terminal, but the organization remains optimistic. “It’s awkward at the moment, it’s a challenge, and we have a lot invested in the region. We’re doing really well so we don’t want to leave the region,” said SOLRS president Ross White. The WCR recently renewed a contract allowing it access to the Waterloo Spur Railway – a single railway track from Kitchener-Waterloo to Elmira owned by Waterloo Region – for another year (making roundtrips from a station at Erb Street in Waterloo to Elmira). But
in 2014 the organization will lose access when the heavy rail gets ripped out to be replaced by two light rail tracks northbound and southbound. While the region is committed to the LRT plan, councillors appear to be taking WCR’s plight seriously, said White. “Regional council asked staff to find a way to ensure that the Waterloo Central Railway can stay here. We don’t want to leave. We have a lot invested: we have a $500,000 shop in St. Jacobs, and we obviously can’t move or take that with us.” Transport Canada won’t allow heavy rail and light rail on the same track at the same time and the LRT’s tentative schedule, 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., will also mean changes for the Goderich-Exeter Railway that provides service to township industries at night. Commissioner of transportation and environTRAIN | 4
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