Community rallies in Jarvis protesting against proposed housing development

A community rally took place in Jarvis in Haldimand County Friday as residents protested against a housing and development plan in Nanticoke. Local residents say Haldimand County is just not set up for a massive housing development and the land should be kept industrial. Jarvis, in the Nanticoke area, is the closest community to where the development site is along Lake Erie. Dozens of people gathered in Jarvis, just down the road from where Empire Homes wants to build a housing development in Nanticoke, right next to Stelco. The proposed plan would see about 10,000 homes built over the next 50 years, on 4,200 acres of land next to Stelco’s Lake Erie works. There is currently a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) up for public review over the next month that would allow the government to build the massive project. “I hear a lot from our constituents that they do not want this MZO,” said Mayor of Haldimand County Shelley Ann Bentley. “They like their rural way of life — they already have congestion here, as you can see here at Highway 6 and 3.” Local residents remains divided about the plan with many concerned about losing jobs and costs related to the development. They say Haldimand County doesn’t have the infrastructure to support such a massive development, but in an email Empire Homes told CHCH News, “the proposal includes: up to 10,000 homes; built-in phases over a horizon of roughly fifty years; approximately 25 million square feet of employment space, anchoring the community in industrial and commercial job creation; a $60 to 80 million wastewater treatment plant funded by the proponent, not by Haldimand County taxpayers.” The developers further said in an email to CHCH News that each phase of growth would happen over decades so that community infrastructure can be planned and funded along with it. “But what about the commitment for schools?,” asked MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk Bobbi Ann Brady. “What about the commitment for health care? You know: hospitals, other hospitals, medical centres, increased policing. We know that when you bring people, the need for police increases and we already have a lack of police across the entire province. So you know those concerns fall directly on the cost falling directly on the local taxpayer and both in Haldimand and in Norfolk.”