Update July 28: The ESR from the Region of Peel is posted on this page http://www.belfountain.ca/?page_id=15810
We welcome your comments!
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Hello all lovers of our beautiful, small Belfountain hamlet landscape.
The Region of Peel plans to completely change the rural charm of the village by installing unnecessary sidewalks, culverts, streetlights, and parking. Despite community feedback to “leave the roads as they are,” the Region plans to go ahead with these expensive and unwanted “improvements.”
Contrary to the Regionâs claims that the roads are unsafe to pedestrians and a hazard to drivers, the truth is that over the last 5 years there have been NO accidents involving pedestrians. While a few mainly non-fatal vehicular collisions have occurred, these have been due to irresponsible driving, poor judgment when passing, and collisions with wildlife – mostly deer; NOT the design of the roads as they are now.
We believe this unnecessary âimprovementâ project will further endanger species already at risk and ruin the beauty of the hamlet. It will cost you, the taxpayer, $31.5 million dollars, when our government is already $12.5 billion in debt. Further, this plan was defeated in 2003, so why is this being raised again, against the wishes of the tax paying residents of our hamlet?
Please sign the petition attached below if you would like to keep the historical and beautiful character of Belfountain the way it is, while also protecting the wildlife and fragile ecosystem in and around this hamlet.
To return it to us, either drop it off at Higher Ground this weekend or post it to PO Box 15 Erin, ON, N0B 1T0
-> Petition <-
Thank you from your BCO Board
Small is Beautiful
I agree with many before me on this website to control growth and urbanization of Belfountain. The big picture has to do with Greenbelt issues. Please tell me why is a “wedding centre” proposed for Winston Churchill & Charleston s/r.? The region and town has to take steps to stop putting stuff in the Green Belt, that is non-related to farming or conservation. If the Green Belt is watered down for other uses, I fear for Belfountain and the Forks. Please attend the meetings planned at Town Hall on the future of the Green Belt and the Escarpment. Keep the growth for Brampton and Mississauga by seeking amendments to alter Ontario’s “Places to Grow Act”. Then, maybe Belfountain will retain it’s heritage and country attributes.
Dale St Clair
This effort to build/install sidewalks is another waste or taxpayer money.It amounts
to nothing more than a bib for hypothetical tourist dollars at the expense of residents
and,ultimately,at the expense of the hamlets main appeal: Its peaceful, secluded
natural conservatism. The hamlets merit as a tourist attraction won’t be improved
by sidewalks, which will do nothing but damage the scenic beauty of the area for the
illusion of progress and to give the impression that those charged with these
measures serve a function. As a near twenty-year resident of Belfountain, I do not
consent to the sacrifices we are likely to endure for the sake of a vanity project.
I OPPOSE this effort to slowly homogenize our hamlet, to slowly urbanize it,
to make it indistinguishable from other parts of the GTA. We are community, not
a utility to be exploited, or to be subjected to the whims of unaccountable
bureaucrats.
Blair Pinkerton
735 Bush Street
I often wonder how our elected officials could be so out of touch with our community.
As I understand it, the Belfountain Community dose not want a housing development on our south end, our council seems to have approved it. We see no reason whatsoever to spend millions on unnecessary sidewalks, and yet council seems bent on doing so.
True issues revolve around lack of parking for the influx of tourists visiting our parks, and the failure to address or control the extreme speeds and noise of both cars and motorcycles on our roads.
If there is money to be spent, lets apply it to issues truly pertinent to our community.
Thank you for all of your comments. To date we have 338 signatures from residents and visitors. More are coming in as some residents are away.We are still collecting signatures and will include them. Darryl is working on getting the petition online. We have read the ESR and feel that there is not enough justification for this project that will cost 12 million in the hamlet alone. It does not address the real concerns of the residents. Also there are too many impactful details that are not being addressed upfront. If you want to sign the petition today I have a copy and will post it in the Higher Ground. We will post more sign sheets later today as we are all collectively out of ink 🙂
I, too, have lived in Belfountain for over 30 years and agree completely that there is no need to alter the Village’s roads to include sidewalks. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a problem with the roads as they are currently structured. I raised three children while most of the time living on the corner of Bush and Main Streets. My children all reached adulthood negotiating the Village and surrounding area without incident, including biking to primary school. In my recollection, the only traffic accidents were the result of drunk drivers: one who went through the centre of town and into the gas station and the other who came crashing into the side of the general store. In both cases, sidewalks would not have made any difference. I have not seen any evidence of pedestrian incidents resulting from the current configuration of the Village.
Like Nicola Ross, I have also been involved in the fiasco with parking on Scott Street and seen how the Town can create a problem where none existed, spend an enormous amount of time and money on the issue, and then claim to solve it. On our little laneway where speeding has become a serious concern, the Town’s response has been to remove the original speed limit sign and replace it with one at double the speed against the united wishes of the residents.
I would question any claims made by the Region, the Town or our elected representatives. In our case on Scott Street when we pushed for evidence to support their position, they refused to provide the same. They continually ignore the wishes of the residents who live in and pay for their communities.
I have signed the petition and encourage everyone else to do the same before the Town and Region destroy our small Village the way they have destroyed many of the other Caledon communities.
We live on the forks road . It’s very busy with cars , motorcycles ,cyclists.
We have deer that cross from the CVC owned gully across the road. We have lived here for 12 years. To date, there have been no accidents . We do, however witness unnecessary speeding and illegal parking ( we have no parking signs up now thanks to Richard and team ) We chose to buy here due to its quiet country location and do not wish that to change. We pay higher taxes to have this privilege .
We say no to urban sprawl . Keep Belfountain quaint and beautiful!
Ps…we found another dirty diaper on the roadside . Can’t tell you how much trash , coffee cups , cans and diapers we find thrown on our boulevards . Is this what we want?
Allan & Anne Jaggard
pLet#8217;s Take Back Our Streets/p
pI#8217;ve just been involved with a similar sort of situation with the Town of Caledon. While there has never been a problem with parking or the movement of emergency vehicles on the top end of Scott Street in Belfountain, the Town created a parking problem and then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct this non-problem. Moreover, the #8220;solution#8221; is a huge inconvenience to Scott Street residents while solving a phantom problem. /p
pWith regard to sidewalks and other #8220;improvements#8221; in Belfountain, I would like the Region of Peel to show us where it is legislated that they have to take this course of action. While other municipalities seem to tell residents that regardless of a safety issue, there is no money to make required improvements, the Town of Caledon and Region of Peel seem to take the opposite tact. They say they are making a situation safer at huge expense even when there is no evidence that the costly changes will improve anything, or that they are actually required. /p
pPlease show me the evidence that these changes are required AND evidence that these changes, if made, will solve the problem that we don#8217;t seem to have./p
pI suggest we hold a Take Back Our Street Rally./p
Thanks for the updates BCO!
I understand the Environmental Study Report is available for viewing up till July 29th and that a copy is available for viewing at the Belfountain library. Since the library isn’t open again till Tuesday I’m hoping to still squeeze in a look. In the interim are there more details about where exactly they want to put the sidewalks and parking in the village?
Thank you!
I sent my comments to the Region: that we do not want sidewalks, curbs or storm sewers in Belfountain. We have good drainage in the village, due to the porous
soils here and sidewalks and curbs would alter that! These might also cause unsafe icing in the winter.
Their response was that they had contacted BCO for comments, but I don’t think
they were making notes?
If they want to spend infrastructure monies there are several unpaved side roads
that could use paving instead. Also work on better parks in Brampton,
so the weekend hoards that come to the village might find somewhere that’s enjoyable closer to home.
We have called Belfountain home for 31 years and in this entire time, while living on one of the busiest streets, we have not known of nor witnessed even one pedestrian accident We have raised our family here and now our grandchildren play in the village and attend Befountain Public School as did their parents, all who have walked up to the school over the years without incident. As residents of this quaint hamlet setting we find no issue in safely walking along the existing ‘gravel sidewalks aka shoulders’.
We welcome tourists to enjoy the beauty of what our village has to offer and I feel confident that some of the perks of visiting the natural landcapes of Caledon’s villages are Not Sidewalks or street lights bright enough to be used as an emergency runway/landingstrip. Perhaps sidewalks may be something that tourists might feel more comfortable with however, this is not the feeling of the residents no matter how the Region tries to market this to us.
I can remember when as part of a group of residents, who were concerned about pedestrian safety, we brought our concerns to the same Region of Peel offices only to be repeatedly told that there was no concern and that the costs would be far too prohibitive. These were simple issues which eventually were addressed by the region, without great expense and only after dilligence on our part. The first was when we requested that they reconfigure the yield lane which existed for traffic entering the Bush St Old Main Street intersection from the west along Bush St to a full three way stop intersection. At that time there was an island in the center of this intersection with a full stop for those turning left down the Forks Rd and a yeild for those turning right, south on Mississauga Rd/Old Main St. Traffic would speed through the yeild and you took your life in your hands crossing the road there. Not to forget that the residents of the small bungalow directly to the south of that yeild zone regularly came close to being hit while trying to enter or exit their driveway. On another occasion we again, repeatedly asked for a full stop sign and flashing light to be placed at the top of the hill intersection of Bush St and Shaw’s Creek Rd. We were told “That this was Not Necessary” that was until a near fatal group of accidents followed. Only then did they listen to what those who live on these village roads, knew all too well.
The third time came when a handful of us finally convinced our local government representatives and the Region’s representatives to walk along Old Main St with us from the village centre south toward the turn at the Old town hall. As we began the walk the Region’s representative told us how it was not necessary to reduce the ‘in village’ speed limit as per the findings of their own review. I shall never forget his face when he was almost hit by two vehicles as they sped through the middle of that walk! Needless to say, we had a reduced speed limit within short order.
This political bullying by the region of peel appears to be possibly driven more by their agenda to support a hefty budget for the more marginal urban villages such as Caledon East, Bolton and Inglewood etc.; and it stinks of possbile conflict of interest on their part in order to appease the developers from the north, south, east and west boudaries of Caledon! Why is it so impossible for the powers that be in our local government to accept that not every village needs to look like a minature version of a city streetscape? Do you go to a buffett and expect to eat only one or two offerings of food? Do you usually plant a garden with only one type of shrub, tree or flower? Do you embrace a community because it is all the same or do you embrace the richness from the variety it offers? PLEASE Region of Peel and Town of Caledon authorities has our rural landscape not been comprimised enough over the years?
In closing, have lived in Cheltenham and then Belfountain for over 50 years. I have lived in villages without sidewalks for this entire time and some how my friends and I managed to safely survive the roads on our bikes, horses and walking. It is the rapidly increasing influx of, most often although not always, environmentally insensitive tourist, drivers from the rapidly encroaching urban belts to the south of us; along with the road race cyclists who consider Caledon and it’s villages their outdoor gymn, who are causing the road dangers. Why are the powers that be not more interested in addressing these issues through police intervention and ongoing awareness training of these individuals who do not appear to know or care about common courtesy let alone rules of the road?
Please leave the village of Belfountain alone, save the regional tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars and set an example that you are a governing body who can think outside of the urban concrete box!
Lynn & Brian Wood
623 Bush Street Belfountain
I would have spoken up at the meetings re belfountain however I presumed that you had a spoke person . I made my comments known re the main roads. I would have to say if I lived in the village proper I would want it left as is. A lot is spent (our money)and done in the name of safety and yet the stats except where animals are concerned( deer) don’t seem to bear out the notion that the area is unsafe
Somehow the Region decided to engineer the Forks-of-Credit-Road with unnecessary retaining walls, a mile or so of industrial guard rails, New Jersey Barriers and curbs to the extent that no one can see the river any more. It is posted a “Scenic Road”, perhaps now to engineers only.
These bureaucrats need to remember who they work FOR, people seem to have lost their power, we need to take it back quick! Councilors work for us and they must be forced to represent our wishes. Belfountain is a beautiful and special place because of the people who live here and take care of it and have for 200 years. Peel Region, HANDS OFF BELFOUNTAIN