Fuelled by a series of front-page articles in the Waterloo Region Record, local residents are becoming aroused and angry about a 750-acre land assembly surrounded in secrecy.
What is known is that Landacre, acting on behalf of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and Ontario Realty Corporation, has made offers of purchase to the owners of six farms and six residential sites near New Hamburg and has told them if they refuse to sell, they will be expropriated.
But Wilmot Township and Waterloo Region politicians and staff have been sworn to non-disclosure agreements so the public and the property owners do not know why the land is being purchased. There is speculation it is for a major manufacturing facility, but so far no companies have been identified.
What is known is that Toyota is shopping locally and in the United States for a facility to build all-electric vehicles and that local municipalities do not have any industrial-zoned parcels large enough to meet its needs.
This week Wilmot Township council chambers at Castle Kilbride in Baden was packed by about 100 angry residents, including president Mark Reusser of the Waterloo Federation of Agriculture and Adam van Bergijik, owner of Mountain Oak Cheese Company, seeking answers.
Van Bergijik and his son, Arjo, produce cheeses that have won national and international awards and sell from an on-farm store near Haysville.
They crop land that is within the bounds of the land assembly, but their barns and cheese plant are south of the boundary.
The land assembly is south of Highway 7&8, is south-east of New Hamburg and extends one road south and to Wilmot Centre.
