The forest city kills its forests

Hmm, looks like the City of London, Ontario - Municipal Government is quietly trying to carve out some lands from the Meadowlily Woods Environmentally Sensitive Area.

Under the proposal, the subject lands would be removed from the ESA, and would be subject to an amendment that would change their designation from Green Space Place Type to Neighbourhoods Place Type. In other words, protected lands are about to be opened up for low-density residential development.

Maybe I'm naive, but aren't ESAs supposed to be protected from this kind of thing? Hoping Steve Hillier, the city councillor for the ward where this is all happening, might be able shed some light on why the change, who's behind it, and why ESAs seem to be so vulnerable to this type of activity.

I raise my voice because if we keep snipping off pieces of our ESAs - absolute jewels of our shared urban environment - then it won’t be long before we have no ESAs at all. Either we say something now or we eventually regret not having said anything at all.

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