Heather Wright/The Independent

Tyler Struckett says a proposed subdivision near Lamrecton Park should have entry points on Lakeshore Road, not Egremont.

The Camlachie man and his wife, Erin, have started a petition hoping to get Plympton-Wyoming council to act on their concerns about high traffic on the heritage road and the danger that poses to children in the area.

A plan of subdivision by JN Ventures came to Plympton-Wyoming council in May. Developer Brad Zantingh wants to put 175 homes on 55 acres of land between Lakeshore and Egremont Roads with another 100 down the line.

The land needs to be rezoned from agricultural to residential, however Lambton County Planner Patti Richardson said in May that Zantingh went to the Ontario Land Tribunal for the right to develop the land, so it must be approved.

But neighbours, including the Strucketts, voiced concern about the density of the development worried the “city subdivision” would have far more homes than the surrounding area which has four homes per acre. Richardson said the maximum number of homes per acre in the residential zoning is 12 per acre. This development has eight.

Many were concerned about the traffic in the area. That’s Tyler Struckett’s concern.

One of the entry points in the draft plan is right beside his home. He’s lived along the road for 10 years and watched as the traffic increased with each new housing development. “The amount of traffic that we have now is crazy compared to what it used to be when I first moved in. I think that’s just all the homes being built…. a lot of us neighbors are all basically on the same page that I don’t want my kids going up and down that road if it’s going to be any busier than it already is.”

Struckett says the solution is simple. “The outcome I would like to see would be a permanent access off of Lakeshore to this new development. I feel like that would stop a lot of the traffic which is going to be the number one problem on our road… It has two existing entrances off Lakeshore for farmers, so I don’t understand why we can’t have two accesses off there,” he tells The Independent. Struckett adds Egremont has a lot of curves and with higher traffic volumes, “I think it’s just going to be a safety problem.”

Several councillors seemed to back that idea at the May meeting with Councillor Bob Woolvett saying “everyone has to get back out to Lakeshore Road eventually anyway.”

Any entry onto Lakeshore would have to be negotiated with the county, Richardson said.
Aside from the entrance, Struckett is hopeful the town will work with the developer to create a green space to separate the new development from the existing homes. He’d like that to include some mature trees and a grass buffer instead of a fence which he says looks “like a prison.”

The Struckett’s Change.org petition has already garnered over 400 signatures of support. Plympton-Wyoming council is expected to take a second look at the plan at the end of June.