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Dilkens told reporters the land has a “fragmented ownership” of more than 200 people. Any development on the wetlands would be residential, he said.

“This doesn’t mean development is to happen tomorrow,” said Dilkens. “What it means is development could happen in the future if a developer can overcome the other hurdles that exist.”

Photo by Dax Melmer / Windsor Star

Ward 4 Coun. Chris Holt shared Dilkens’ Facebook post to point out that just a couple weeks ago, council listed tree coverage and reducing basement flooding as their top two priorities.

Holt was referring to a Feb. 12 meeting where councillors discussed their main concerns for a 20-year strategic plan. The majority of councillors put implementing a sewer master plan to prevent basement flooding, and increasing the city’s tree coverage, at the top of the list.

“This kind of flies in the face of that, so I have a lot of questions for the mayor,” Holt told the Star.

“We had a great discussion on tree cover and improving tree cover, and what that means to our city environmentally, financially, socially. To hear that one of our protected woodlots is threatened right in the heart of the city, that causes a lot of concern.”

He said developing wetlands could have potentially detrimental results.

“There are a lot of trees there,” said Holt. “And wetlands are the sponge of the municipality, the sponge of civilization. To remove those, to develop those, to put infrastructure there, that relieves it of its ability to do what it’s meant to do. We should be working with nature, not against it. So I have a lot of questions about it.”

Dilkens said he’s not against increasing tree growth and protecting natural areas. It’s about “finding balance,” he said.

“This area was always scheduled for development, was always planned for development,” he said. “In fact, part of the provincially significant wetland development that they put on years ago included an area that already had sewers put in. The original designation included an area where homes were already built.”

— with files from Lindsay Charlton

twilhelm@postmedia.com

twitter.com/WinStarWilhelm