Hi Everyone,

This is a really urgent matter.

As you may know, Council approved the Chancery Queen Trow development at their last meeting. 17 impassioned citizens, including architect Robert Ritz, spoke in opposition. Their presentations were articulate, well organized, and quite powerful. Only the developer’s representative spoke in favor of the project. 

At the end of the presentations, it was apparent that the only justification for changing the official plan and designating Queen Trow as a high density as opposed to a low density neighborhood was developer profit. Yet, led by Councillor Ingram, five other Councillors (Vassilakos, Henderson, Burbach, Bunting and Beatty) endorsed the project along with Mayor Mathieson. 

We have one more chance to stop this project and to bring Councillors on side. We only need to sway two votes. However, time is of the essence. You must voice your concern or your intention to speak at the city Council meeting (you have the right to do so) by November 2. If you write a letter of protest you must make sure that it is registered with tdafoe@stratford.ca (Tatiana Dafoe) or clerks@stratford.ca.  You must specifically request that it be included as part of the record of the proceedings in upcoming meetings. Even better, if you’re willing to make a presentation (you would have as much as 10 minutes to speak), you must also meet the November 2 deadline and specifically request through Tatiana Dafoe that you want to be part of the meeting on November 8.

We hope to flood Council with as many letters and as many presenters as we can to make it clear to council members that they work for us, not for developer interest. Through the size of our protest, we hope to convey to council members that their endorsement of this project will cost them at the next election. We are also asking people to write letters to those Councillors who supported the project, requesting that they explain their decision to do so.

Sharon Collingwood and Robert Ritz have pieced together a wonderful summary of the issues at this link: https://sosstratford.com/home/press-release/ They have also included contact information for  city councillors and city staff should you wish to write a letter of objection or to make a presentation at the November 8th meeting. If the link doesn't work, simply type it into your browser.

Please read it and, if you’re so disposed, please also use the link to convey your objection. Sample letters are provided on the link site.

By the way, architect Robert Ritz has indicated that he has a builder who would happily build a scaled down version of the development that would not necessitate changing Stratford’s official plan.

Let them hear our voices.

Richard Wood and Mary Walton (Thor Dingman has passed on the change.org website to us to manage)

You can reach us at: rwoodn618@rogers.com or mmwalton1997@gmail.com. Please let us know if you've decided to oppose the Chancery project.

Many thanks!