Town of Ingersoll poised to grow
GROWTH: Town construction expected to begin immediately
By Hugo Rodrigues POLITICS REPORTER for the Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Monday May 14, 2007
Oxford County council approved a subdivision draft plan Wednesday for a 188-lot single family home development east of Harris Street and north of Clark Road in the Town of Ingersoll.
The development will proceed in two phases, with 82 homes built in phase one and the remaining 106 coming along in phase two once a series of streets and berms are completed. Several of the lots will come with conditions of sale and ownership notifying buyers of the surrounding land uses, which include agriculture, quarrying and industrial.
Several concerns were raised at the public meeting held in Ingersoll regarding access to the development while it's under construction, given there was originally only one access to the land through an ongoing residential development to the north.
"(The builder to the north) had a concern that the proposed plan is premature, along with concerns over access, citing issues over the phase one traffic," corporate manager of community and strategic planning Marg Misek-Evans said. "These were acknowledged at the public meeting at the town on April 16, and the town advised that a second access should be pursued."
Many of the concerns were addressed through splitting the development into two phases and including another road access onto the site, which were included as conditions in the draft approval of the plan of subdivision.
There were also several concerns over a nearby natural area that had been identified as deserving of protection from development. Deputy Warden Don McKay questioned how
this area would have
been handled if the recommendations from last year's Oxford Natural Heritage Study had been in place.
Misek-Evans said natural heritage was examined as part of a secondary servicing study done for the south end of Ingersoll, which recommended protection of that particular site. As part of the planning process required for the residential development to proceed the developer had to complete environmental impact studies which needed to be peer reviewed.
Those steps were undertaken and the developer has agreed to preserve the sites and then turn them over to the Town of Ingersoll once construction is complete.
"The end result is protection of the feature through public ownership," MHBC Planning agent Paul Britton said.
With the county's approval, phase one of construction should begin immediately, which was complimented by Warden Paul Holbrough.
"I look forward to more new houses behind my house, which used to be a corn field," Holbrough said.
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