CARA Corner: Off-road vehicles on Creemore roads?

Mayor Doug Measures and five councillors don’t want to know what the residents in Clearview Township really think about increasing ATV access to our roads, and adding access to our roads, unopened road allowances and trails for the much larger side-by-sides.
CARA wants to know, and intends to let council know. So do two other local groups: Clearview Township United and the group circulating the petition entitled, “Clearview Council + Mayor Measures: Listen to residents, not just the ATV lobby!” As did more than 50 residents of Creemore and Duntroon who wrote strongly worded objections before the unfortunate July 27 council decision to direct staff to draft a bylaw allowing greater off-road vehicle access to our residential and other roads.
Should we just give up and let the mayor and five other ward councillors force Creemore and surrounding area residents to accept off-road vehicles on our roads and trails and thereby ruin our bucolic, mostly quiet landscape and our safe, tourist-friendly village? Hell no, we won’t go quietly!
Last week CARA sent an objectively worded ATV survey to our members. We will report later on results. CARA has also written to the Integrity Commissioner about the apparent conflict of interest of ATV dealer Councillor John Broderick who is spearheading the new bylaw and continuing to advocate for all road access.
CARA agrees with The Echo editor that this contentious issue should be put on hold until public meetings can be held and the regulations under the new provincial legislation are known. The province also agrees, having advised municipalities to wait until the proposed regulatory amendments are passed to ensure that any communication is accurate and aligned with the new rules.
Why is Clearview council rushing ahead to consider a new bylaw in September? Because a local ATV dealer (Councillor Broderick) and a Stayner resident who was caught in June illegally riding his ATV on Warrington Road want change now, and the mayor and five councillors representing wards outside of the Creemore area (including the ATV dealer) approved the requests.
The ATV petition circulated by others demanding that council listen to local residents already has over 600 signatures. In the last census, the former Creemore Village had only approximately 1,100 residents, including children. Conflicted Councillor Broderick claimed that he has heard from “thousands of long suffering ATV owning residents within the township.” Highly unlikely, and at least not indicative of public opinion expressed by actual residents of Creemore, Duntroon and surrounding areas.
Add your voices to those who have already asked council to delay the process or simply to deny greater access than presently allowed by the 2017 council decision that fairly balanced the interests of local ATV riders who only requested access to some roads and the interests of other local ratepayers who wanted no ATV access at all.

CARA Corner is authored by Greg Young and Val Dyer, and submitted on behalf of the Creemore Area Residents’ Association. Visit, creemoreresidents.ca.