Dear community members,

First, thank you to everyone who has signed and shared the petition. It was mentioned at the recent public meeting and I will be following up with the City to ensure that Council and the Planning Advisory Committee remain aware of the community opposition to the Hanley Park North development.

I also want to thank everyone who generously donated to help promote the petition. Based on the information available to me, your contributions greatly helped expand its reach and increase the number of signatures. The level of support has been genuinely surprising and deeply appreciated.

This update is intended to refresh the petition information now that the public meeting has passed and the application appears to be moving into another waiting period while the City and the Applicant review the public comments.

We're in an election year and it's a crucial time to keep up the pressure on Council to do the right thing and reject the Hanley Park North application.

For this reason, I’m keeping this petition open and also encouraging residents to continue sending comments directly to Council at myr.council@belleville.ca and planning@belleville.ca.  

Even if you have already written to Council, please consider writing again. Your message does not need to be long. It can simply restate your objection, explain why this area matters to you and ask Council to reject the application.  Council needs to be reminded that keeping this area in its natural state is very important to the community.

The City has reasonable options it can pursue, including pursuing a possible land swap involving City-owned lands such as the Old Fairgrounds, which they are already in the process of redevelopment:  https://getinvolved.belleville.ca/redevelopment-of-the-old-fairgrounds-site-street-a.

Please keep sharing the petition and keep writing to Council, reminding them that we want them to protect this area.

Here's the website addressing the many issues with this development:  https://aroundbelleville.wordpress.com/

The Hanley Park North planning application can be found here:  https://www.belleville.ca/en/do-business/current-planning-and-development-applications.aspx

As always, thank you so much for your help.