Dear Editor,

Forewest is claiming that its proposal is 51 units per acre, but 0.7 acres are between top of bank and 2.19 are a conservation area (that would just be the 30-metre setback on either side of the stream).

So if you take almost 3 acres from 10.6, you get about eight acres, and the density is about 65 units per acre.

They get around this by taking out only the 0.7 acres and calculating density based on 9.9 acres. Not very logical.

Smartgrowth is supposed to be 20 to 30 units per acre, and of course, with transit a long way off, the parking and traffic problems will be horrendous.

Should the proposal proceed, it will result in the protection of a significant area of Jeffries Brook riparian habitat by dedicating 2.19 acres, or 21 per cent of the site, to the Township for conservation purposes, and include the completion of a portion of the Jeffries Brook Greenway.

This shows that it is just the riparian habitat they are protecting, and that has to be protected anyway. There isn't really any benefit to the Township taking this on, as opposed to requiring the developer to maintain it.

So the Township is getting nothing from this developer other than what the developer had to give up anyway, and the developer is going to make a huge profit, since he would have paid the going price for 12 units per acre back in 2006, and he is now getting a huge increase in density.

This is what is happening all across Willoughby. And the Township has now said, with its recent update to the Development Cost Charges, that they are not going to try to acquire urban areas for parks anymore (they reduced what developers are going to pay for parks acquisition to rural land values).

So people living on Willoughby with this sea of housing will not have good-sized parks that they can go to.

It seems to me, if you put in high density, you should get more green space in return, so people have a place to go rather than having to drive to find a park (not very sustainable).

Lorraine Baldwin, Willoughby