Valley lands can wait for things to be done just right

King Township councillors last week opted to do the right thing about conveying the unopened road allowance along the 7th Concession to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

They elected to wait.

This is one of those very rare issues in which there is lot of debate and back-andforth discussion between factions that are basically sitting on the same side. During last week's council meeting, Mayor Margaret Black made the point a couple of times that everyone is out for the same result, namely the protection of this spectacularly beautiful piece of land. No one is advocating anything different.

If there is a villain in this piece, it's the normal human tendency to want to rush into things, possibly combined with a sanctimony that frequently accompanies environmental protection issues. It's such a motherhood topic, that some people tend to believe that their sincerely held interest automatically makes them right, and anyone who disagrees must obviously be wrong. There are right and wrong ways to proceed, even when it comes to protecting this piece of land. And there is nothing to be lost by taking a bit of time to try and work out the best way to go.

Everyone seems to be on the same side on this question, but there are some people who want reasonable assurances, and if it takes a little time to provide them, then so be it.

For example, councillors heard last week from people who want to make sure they will still be able to ride horses on the land in question. The fact is no one has said that won't be the case. But there have been barriers erected at the ends of the trail, mainly to keep out motorized vehicles, and there have been concerns raised that they can be awkward for horses to get over. And since there are few horse people in King with the jumping prowess of Eric Lamaze, we would submit that these concerns are legitimate and deserve consideration.

And the particularly nice part of all of this is there's really no cause to rush into anything. This piece of land is not going anywhere. No developer is likely to plan a subdivision there. True, a cartographer sitting at a drawing board somewhere in Toronto might look at a map of the area and conclude this might be a good place for a through road. But we would argue such a notion would be history after a five-minute site inspection.

This is clearly one of those cases in which the best course of action is to do nothing until most everyone is sure of the right way to proceed.

An unlike other situations, we have lots of time in this instance.