{"id":24168,"date":"2019-07-04T18:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24168"},"modified":"2019-07-11T18:50:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T22:50:19","slug":"possible-hydro-project-raises-residents-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/possible-hydro-project-raises-residents-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible Hydro project raises residents’ concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A possible new hydro project which would help power\nincreased services on GO Transit\u2019s Barrie Rail Corridor is leaving residents in\nthe St. John\u2019s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue area seeing red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue are stakes that have appeared in the hydro\ncorridor in the area\u2019s northeast quadrant, outlining new power lines just 18\nfeet beyond their back fences, much closer to their properties than hydro lines\nalready in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerned resident Andrea Kariotis first noticed the\nstakes, visible from her back fence, a few weeks ago and tells The Auroran when\nshe saw the sticks were earmarked for \u201chydro\u201d, her first thought was, \u201cYou\u2019ve\ngot to be kidding me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After some consultation with her neighbours and making\ncalls to Hydro One, Metrolinx and area representatives, Ms. Kariotis has been\nleading the charge calling for an immediate halt to the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not acceptable,\u201d she said, pointing to the stake\nnearest her fence. \u201cIt is way too close.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Kariotis says she has a number of concerns about the hydro\nproject, including health effects from living so close to even more hydro\nlines, noise pollution from the hum of the lines and any other associated\ninfrastructure, and property values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I want to sell my house, no one is going to want to\ncome and buy a house with this hydro tower there,\u201d she said. \u201cThe [tower] that\nis already there is there, and I get it, but I don\u2019t want to sit on my deck and\nhave a coffee while looking at a pole. I want to see the greenery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Ms. Kariotis has raised alarm bells, several\nneighbours have joined her in the fight and they have collected dozens of names\nin a petition for both Hydro One and Metrolinx, and they also plan to formally make\ntheir objections to local lawmakers as a delegate to the July 16 meeting of\nCouncil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t fight for it and nothing happens, I can\u2019t say\nI didn\u2019t try,\u201d she said.  \u201cWe\u2019re going to\ntell Council what our concerns are, that we don\u2019t want this to happen. Where\nelse are they looking to put in these towers? Is there another place, or are\nthere more places? Maybe this place is the easiest because it runs through\nwhere they want it to go and the hydro tower is already there, so maybe it is\nthe easiest and cheapest, but we don\u2019t care if it is the cheapest; we object\nand we don\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydro One says they are in the \u201cearly stages\u201d of\nexploring options available to \u201crelocate some of its key equipment that serves\narea customers, including wires and accompanying structures\u201d at Metrolinx\u2019s\nrequest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs part of this upcoming project, Hydro One crews were\nin site in Aurora near Pinnacle Trail during the month of June to gather local\nsite information and complete staking,\u201d Hydro One spokesperson Alicia Sayers tells\nThe Auroran. \u201cStaking is used to help us identify design options as well as\nsafe construction clearances on Hydro One\u2019s existing right-of-way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHydro One believes in building relationships and working\ntogether with communities that we serve and we will be reaching out to\nresidents in the coming months on this future work that we are conducting at\nthe request of Metrolinx. Prior to engaging with the community, Hydro One needs\nto gather information to develop options for the relocation of this existing equipment.\nThis will then be shared as part of our community consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Area residents, however, said they believe they should\nhave been kept in the loop from the very beginning. They have outlined their\nconcerns and communications with Hydro One in a letter to Council and shared\nwith media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe were told\nthere is in fact a Hydro One project initiated as a result of the Metrolinx\nplan for electrification of the Barrie Rail corridor,\u201d Ms. Kariotis writes. \u201cTo\nmeet Metrolinx power demands, Hydro One may be required to relocate multiple\nexisting distribution posts that come in conflict with the Metrolinx plan.\nSince the project is in the preliminary design stage, Hydro One is reviewing\nconstruction methods and location options for relocating the affected infrastructure.\nThat includes exploring the locations along the existing right of way between\nSt. John\u2019s Sideroad and Mulock Drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur foremost concern is if we had not noticed the\nstaking activity behind our backyards and started to ask questions: when was\nHydro One going to tell us about this infrastructure relocation project? Now\nthat we know more about it, our list of concerns is growing, especially, as\nstated above, this is a potential additional layer of electrical lines close to\nour homes in addition to the existing high voltage transmissions lines. At this\npoint, we have the impression that the need for community involvement and\nconsultation is not being considered as important to Hydro One.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A possible new hydro project which would help power increased services on GO Transit\u2019s Barrie Rail Corridor is leaving residents in the St. John\u2019s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue area seeing red.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2019-07-04-04.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6hO","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 15:11:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}