CambridgeToday received the following open letter to the editor from the Schneider family regarding the Township of Wilmot stalling of the donation of their land to the Cambridge based land trust rare.
Our family, specifically our mother and father, have allowed access to the Schneider property for over 40 years. Many people have enjoyed the ability to hike and ski the many kilometres of trails now maintained by the next generation. It was their wish that this would continue for generations to come.
Our mother is 94, and although she is healthy and continues to enjoy and occasionally still walk these trails, this will not continue forever. Our family is planning to donate a lot of this land you are now enjoying, but the local government -specifically Wilmot Township - is putting up roadblocks preventing this from moving forward.
For over four years, we have negotiated with Wilmot to sever the existing houses and donate over 230 acres of this land to rare.
The rare Charitable Research Reserve is a registered charity working as a land trust and environmental institute in Waterloo Region/Wellington.
They will steward this land as part of their conservation land trust mandate and continue to allow access to this property no differently than it is now. The existing housing with minimal adjacent land will be retained by the family to allow existing tenants and my mother to live in them. No further building, except possibly a shed for maintenance, will be built on donated land.
Wilmot is not allowing this to happen. Our father died in 2011, and with the passing of our mother, taxation will be triggered that would necessitate the sale of these lands and, therefore, the loss of access to all.
As of now, Wilmot is mandating that we build a parking lot, at our expense, on our lands to allow severance of the existing homes. A parking lot would be detrimental to neighbours, incur excessive maintenance and cost, and destroy the beautiful land where it would be built. Existing road parking works well now, and we see no need to change this.
We have successfully addressed many other issues demanded by the township but as a family we do not want a parking lot on our lands.
We will be donating a large parcel of land with a value of millions of dollars and Wilmot needs to honour this commitment which comes at no cost to them. Much expense has already been absorbed by the family and rare in the preparation of this land donation. We are now going public with our concerns and ask for help.
What you can do:
Please write, phone, or email your support of our land donation to the Wilmot council and mayor. Let them know that you do not want a parking lot, that any further delays are not acceptable and that they need to work on alternative solutions to approve our severance application quickly. We do not want to close the property for public access as has been suggested by township planners. Improved roadside parking is a possibility and needs to become a political priority!
Mayor Natasha Salonen: [email protected]
Councillor Steven Martin: [email protected]
Councillor Stewart Cressman: [email protected]
Councillor Lillianne Dunstall [email protected]
Councillor Harvir Sidhu: [email protected]
Councillor Kris Wilkinson: [email protected]
Please feel free to copy rare at [email protected] when you e-mail.
The councillors’ full contact information can be found here.
Please share this letter with any friend/group you think would help (click here to download this letter as a PDF). Thank you for any help you can give us!
Sincerely,
The Schneider Family
