The Town of Tecumseh is holding a public meeting on March 11th, to seek public input on the recommended Housing Accelerator Fund Initiative 1, and the question of whether to allow four dwelling units on one property in the Town, under certain provisions.
I have been on the record from the launch of the Housing Action Plan, and certainly while knocking doors in my successful 2022 campaign as being in support of bringing gentle density into the Town of Tecumseh. I remain steadfast in that support today.
I approach this decision from a perspective of being fiscally responsible, from looking to the long term health of our Town and from wanting a complete, walkable neighbourhood for myself, my neighbours, and my kids to want to live in.
I approach this with a question: what kind of Town do I want to live in?
Unironically the same question I have in mind during budget time.
In the tension triangle of wanting lower taxes, wanting stable service levels, and wanting lower density- one of those wants has to give.
We cannot keep affording to drag new sewers and new wastewater and new roads and new sidewalks etc out to new housing developments on virgin lands. That will raise your taxes. And it is fiscally and environmentally irresponsible to look only to brand new developments as the way to grow the tax base. Where we have servicing in low-density residential areas, we should be encouraging gentle density to happen there.
And when we do that? We create opportunities for businesses to thrive, for parks and trails to be expanded, for safety of people and property to be enhanced. We get to have a Town that feels welcoming and fun and safe and yes, still feels like that small town that you and I love.
I ran for Tecumseh Council to make the kinds of changes I wasn’t seeing already.
This is one of those changes. And it’s as much for us as taxpayers now, as it is for the future of Tecumseh. We need to make decisions now to protect the investment we’re all making in this Town’s future. I cannot support making it unaffordable to live in Tecumseh. Not now for current tax payers, and not in the short and long term for the financial and environmental realities of what it costs to sprawl out and try to maintain and increase service levels.
It will cost us in real dollars, and it will cost us the culture of this Town.
I hope you’ll come to the public meeting.
I hope you’ll arrive with a curious mind.
(My inbox is open: ahiggison@tecumseh.ca, if you’d like to have a respectful chat about this.)