Hearing Days 5, 6 and 7 and Saving Waverly Woods
Hello friends of Waverly Woods/Erie Beach
As it turns out we can only post to change.org three times a week so some reports will be delayed. Follow us on Facebook – Save Waverly Woods for daily updates.
Recommended viewing starting today at 9:30. See Day 7 below.
The Hearing will starts at 9:30 every weekday morning. The link is https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/486458453
It is hard to believe that we have finished with Day 7 of the LPAT hearing already. Today, the developer’s Planner and final witness, Jennifer Vida, presented her witness statement about the various evolutions of the plan over the past 4 years. She also addressed the planning issues that are part of the appeal. She was cross-examined very ably by our lawyer, David Donnelly. Ms. Vida’s presentation took up most of the day which ended with re-examination by Mr. Richardson, the counsel for the developer. On Day 8, we will hear the presentation by Rick Brady, the former Senior Planner for the Town of Fort Erie and the Town’s only witness. Although he has since retired, Mr. Brady was involved in the initial stages of the development proposal and was still working for the Town when the Council approved it in March of 2018. This presentation will be the final one for both the Town and the developer and then our witnesses will be up next. Anne “The Legend” Yagi, our ecologist extraordinaire, may start her testimony tomorrow afternoon and continue onto Thursday. She will be followed by Dr. Katharine Yagi, an ecologist with extensive Fowler’s Toad experience plus much more. It has been a real learning experience for all of us who have never been part of this type of proceedings. Although the days are long, we are learning so much.
Day 6. Ron Huizer, the Ecologist who did the peer review of the LCA Environmental Impact Study, started off the proceedings today, May 2nd. He essentially supported all the studies done in the EIS and felt all issues had been covered adequately. Our lawyer was definitely in good form and made some excellent points. Jennifer Vida, the Planner for the developer was up next and did a summary of her witness statement. Since there was very little time left after her presentation, the cross examination by David was postponed until Tuesday morning. Once Ms. Vida is finished, Rick Brady, former head planner for the Town of Fort Erie, will be on the agenda. His presentation and subsequent questioning will likely take up the rest of the day. David Donnelly our lawyer is doing a fantastic job.
Belated day 5 update of the Waverly Woods OLT appeal: The entire day was taken up on Friday with the evidence of the developer's ecologist. They justified decisions based on their interpretation of applicable guidelines and legislation to which our experts next week will offer alternatives. The adequacy of Red-Headed Woodpecker protection and provision of wildlife corridors was questioned in cross-examination by our amazing lawyer, David Donnelly. To date none of the developer's team has reported encountering a single Fowler's Toad! One point all sides agreed on though is that Waverly Woods is a unique landscape along the Lake Erie shore east of Point Abino. We hope that this process has better technological experience going forward because the audio shortcomings are beginning to affect its supposed public transparency, and consuming time that cannot always be made up elsewhere.
The $30 Challenge. How much does Waverly Woods/Erie Beach mean to you? 100% of the donations we receive goes towards paying the fees for our Lawyer, Planner and Experts (the Dream Team) https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-waverly-woods or send a donation to Community Voices of Fort Erie, P.O. Box 273, Fort Erie, Ontario L2A 2S0. The Hearing will start at 9:30 and the link is https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/486458453
Please attend if you can, it helps our case if everyone knows the interest the public has in this case.
Thank you everyone who has attended so far and also for the donations! We have 9357 followers on change.org and 890 followers on Facebook – Save Waverly Woods. Please keep educating everyone about Waverly Woods/Erie Beach and sharing the petition https://www.change.org/p/ten-story-condo-going-up-in-waverly-woods You can help by volunteering any professional services, informing others and asking them to sign the petition, or donating. Please email cvferie@gmail.com if you are interested. One example of a fund raiser is building bird houses/boxes and donating the profits to our campaign.