LaSalle council has added another layer of protection for endangered species in the town.
A one-hectare piece of land on the north side of Todd Lane, west of the Highway 401 off-ramp, was zoned residential, despite being home to several endangered snakes and flowers.
Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to support a request from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to rezone the property to Natural Environmental.
LaSalle's Director of Development and Strategic Initiatives, Larry Silani, says the move fits within the town's mandate.
"It's in keeping with what's being done in the surrounding lands in Windsor and also here in LaSalle where there's protections of the LaSalle Woodlot, the Spring Garden ANSI [Area of Natural and Scientific Interest] and a number of areas where habitat is being protected for the long term," he says.
Silani says the province has already been keeping the property up, so rezoning the land was just one more protection in place to make sure it's left alone.
"I think the province has certainly shown leadership in terms of going into those areas, doing restoration and over time, over the next decade and two decades, the residents of this community and visitors to this community will certainly benefit from all of those investments," he says.
Silani says the fact that no one opposed the move shows how much LaSalle supports natural space.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation owns the land and the province will continue to maintain the property moving forward.