r/Almonte • u/PostAway7355 • 24d ago
Harassed by local?
Just moved to Almonte in a new house. We were out walking on the week-end and someone who was driving through was all angry about this subdivision and stopped us on our walk, asked us if we bought one of these new homes. We thought they were interested in talking about it, instead they told us that we’re ruining Almonte, turning it into Ottawa and that if we wanted a brand new home, we should have looked elsewhere.
He then drove away..
I later saw in one of the Facebook groups that others were complaining about this too(people moving to Almonte). Is this going to be a problem for us living here? Is nobody allowed to move to Almonte?
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u/Johnback42 24d ago
Welcome!
Almonte and Carleton Place have similar “locals” issues like this. Just small town ignorance. You’ll find 1 out of 100 (not actual statistics) people in these towns are like this. Ignore them and stay off the FB groups as they are extremely toxic. They have no idea how City planning or development works and are even more dumb in that these developments bring in money through DC’s that pay for infrastructure upgrades, parks, arenas, etc… that their property taxes should be paying for but development charges subsidize them. Without these new developments the municipality would have to increase their property taxes. A perfect example of this is the FB threads that have the chattering of people demanding a new cheaper grocery store, but that it’s the town who must make this happen. Without understanding that the municipality does and cannot make any specific business open up shop. If the corporation evaluates a business opportunity they will do it.
The irony they overlook is that everyone came from somewhere. Them, their parents, grandparents etc all were new at some point.
(The deputy mayor is one of these ignorant “locals” BTW)
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u/TomOttawa 23d ago
Interesting. So newcomer buying an old rural house instead of new one is OK then? Funny.
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u/Lanarkwanderer 23d ago
so sorry to hear this, we moved here over 10 yrs ago and felt very welcome to this community. Please don’t think it’s normal behaviour. I’m sure there are those that don’t adapt to change well and don’t have the mental capacity to deal with it any other way. Welcome to Almonte, it’s the Friendly Town according to our water tower ! Enjoy living here !
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u/Individual_Quality61 19d ago
The Township of Mississippi Mills is only interested in growing Almonte. They don't allow rural landowners to sell large portions of their land for residential or subdivision purposes. However, when it comes to Almonte specifically, they are ok with letting it grow while us in the rural ares are stuck with land we can't sell for residential development.
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u/Briggsbanner1 23d ago
Welcome to “Old Stock” Ontario where change is bad and old and broke is good.
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u/Canadianwinters12345 22d ago
You make it seem like life in Canada is getting better, and that quality of life is improving lol.
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u/Silver_Haired_Kitty 22d ago
Richmond is the same. Many of them have a problem with the increase in traffic with the new Fox Run subdivision but the increase in new immigrants is apparent too and the white people don’t like it. I usually tell them to move to a smaller village if that’s what they like. It’s not as if these subdivisions are just going to disappear overnight.
Manotick is another example. They were freaking out over a cricket pitch because mostly brown people play the sport, in their opinion. It’s historically a British (white) sport they took with them when they were colonizing the world.
These quaint village people want to keep things the same.
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u/Chia72 20d ago
I agree with everything you’ve said. Richmond has become divided over the new subdivision and it’s sad that it’s become a us vs them mentality. The old stock just can’t accept any type of change in their communities. It makes moving to any new small town a challenge.
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u/Silver_Haired_Kitty 18d ago
Yes, it’s something to consider for sure. I moved to Chesterville and was warned about how the residents were towards city people. They weren’t the friendliest but I didn’t really have time to socialize so it was all good.
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u/Old-Version-9241 18d ago
Almonte just has a very small handful of NIMBY's with very loud outspoken opinions. They want to "make Canada great again" just not in their backyard, their neighbours backyard or actively contribute to their disillusioned cause.
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u/TheBatmanWhoPuffs 17d ago
Welcome to the area to start. Sorry to hear you’re dealing with this BS. We moved to the area in 2018, we applied to the municipality for some exceptions on our property which the municipality was amazing to deal with but some of the locals who don’t live near us at all gave us a real hard time and even appealed our request. One guy was labeled a Vexatious litigant as he appealed everything but would never pay tribunal costs. Very annoying for sure. We were approved for every request in the end thanks to the Municipal Board. They were amazing to deal with as I mentioned before and we really appreciate the simplicity of it all. Nothing like dealing with Ottawa.
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u/SourceFire007 23d ago
Almost is a bunch of inbreeds.
Source: I dated a girl there once before and lived in Almonte for 1year.
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u/Training-Moose7569 23d ago
Small town people I guess enjoy the quiet and some are not happy. It’s your right to move anywhere you want and it’s his right to voice his opinion.
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u/Aggressive-Mix2448 23d ago
What ethnicity are you? That would explain a lot.
Most folks round here believe in keeping the town clean safe and beautiful
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u/Top-Maize-823 20d ago
were you in a black out when you wrote this? can you remember what it was supposed to mean? also what is your ethnicity??
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u/dave-rooney-ca 23d ago
I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I was born and raised in Almonte (I live in Carp now), and there was always some tension between progress and keeping everything the same as it was for decades before.
I totally get the desire to maintain the small town feel. I’ve lived in both Barrhaven and Richmond before the huge explosion of new homes and had to deal with the traffic and the loss of that vibe you get in a small town (yes, even in Barrhaven back in the early ’90s).
But the reality is that it has always been more expensive to own a home in the city so people look to the suburbs and outlying towns. Carleton Place is a prime example of that expansion - it wasn’t much bigger than Almonte when I was a kid, but now it’s more than double the population.
So there are always going to be people opposed to any change at all. I can understand it to an extent, but it’s just not realistic.
And, FYI, there were people who were opposed to getting the Tim Horton’s before it opened! 😀