Você está na página 1de 23

DEBATE: Stouffville Council formally asks Province to Unlock

Greenbelt along Hwy. 404 Corridor


https://stouffvillereview.com/town-pushes-for-commercial-and-industrial-development-in-gormley/

https://whitchurch.civicweb.net/document/130520
The Problem: Integrity of the Moraine
https://www.amcto.com/Blog/December-2018/Bill-66-Greenbelt-Implications

This document is a contribution


to that discussion – Arnold
Neufeldt-Fast

https://whitchurch.civicweb.net/document/130520
Best of the best farmland--
Ontario lost 18% of its Class 1
farmland in 10 yrs. ('96-'06).

Now W-Stouffville is asking


Doug Ford to unlock protected
Greenbelt Class 1 farmland
(dark green) along Hwy 404
for commercial.

Our generation's land budget


is in the red

(LEFT: Hwy 404 / Woodbine


Corridor; Pic: Vivian Road)
Acres of land
farmed in W-
Stouffville dropped
31% from 2011 to
2016.

W-Stouffville
Council will ask
province to
“unlock” Greenbelt
lands for their
“economic
potential”
W-Stouffville’s
Greenbelt lands along
Hwy 404 are
important not only
because they have
Class 1 agricultural
soil.
In some cases (LEFT:
Aurora Rd. at
Woodbine) they are
“Wellhead Protection
Zones."
Council is encouraging
Doug Ford to open the
Greenbelt along all
400-series highways--
like here
W-Stouffville has
properties on the Oak
Ridges Moraine along
Hwy 404 that have
"economic potential” if
protections are
removed.
But at what cost?
Some properties are
protected for their role
in charging the aquifer
and are highly
vulnerable.
Doug Ford is throwing
good planning into
ABOVE: Woodbine Avenue south of Stouffville Rd. chaos.
The Oak Ridges
Moraine Plan
protects a diversity
of “landform
types” that
directly affect the
ecological and
hydrological
character of the
moraine.

W-Stouffville is
asking that
protections be
removed from
lands along Hwy
404.
ABOVE: Bethesda Road, between Hwy 404 and Woodbine
Light green identifies
“Landform
Conservation Areas -
Category 2” in the
Oak Ridges Moraine
Plan, lands with up
to 50% distinctive
and complex
landform patterns.
W-Stouffville Council
is asking province to
remove protections
along Hwy. 404
corridor
ABOVE: Bloomington Rd., between Hwy 404 and Woodbine
The “Greenlands System
Corridor,” north of Bethesda
Rd at Hwy 404, is some of
the most significant,
complex and vulnerable land
in the Oak Ridges Moraine
Plan (see earlier slides)
It is surrounded in the south
by “countryside area”—30%
of the land protected by the
ORM Plan—as “buffer” and
“transition” between “ORM
Natural Core” and
Settlement Areas.
W-Stouffville Council is
petitioning Doug Ford to
remove protections here.
The Region’s
“Greenlands
System Vision”
identifies green
corridors that
perform (or will
perform) “major
bridge
functions.”
LEFT: Bethesda
Rd. at Hwy. 404.
Stouffville
Council is asking
Doug Ford to
remove
protections here.
Whitchurch-Stouffville is located
on the provincially protected
Greenbelt with limited
“Expansion Lands.”
(See red arrow for “Community
of Stouffville”)
On Dec. 6 Doug Ford tabled
legislation (Bill 66, “Open for
Business”) which would allow
municipalities to override
existing environmental
protections, breaking an election
promise.
On Dec. 11, W-Stouffville Council
was first in line to signal to the
province its intent to unlock
Greenbelt lands along the Hwy
404 corridor
W-Stouffville is “requesting”
and “encouraging” Doug Ford’s
gov’t to unlock Greenbelt lands
near any 400-Series Highway in
any town.

W-Stouffville’s Council seeks to


have the Oak Ridges Moraine
Plan’s “countryside areas”—
buffer zones around the
Moraine Natural Core—re-
designated as “Provincially
Significant Employment Areas”
where they abut Hwy. 404.
30% of protected Oak
Ridges Moraine land is
designated "countryside”
— “buffer” and
“transition” between
“Settlement Areas” and
“Natural Core.”

The role of these lands is


wholly misunderstood or
fudged in the W-
Stouffville resolution to
unlock the Greenbelt for
commercial development.
W-Stouffville’s request
to “permit and
encourage” light
industrial development
on protected
“countryside” areas
(30% of Moraine Plan
lands) shows a
misunderstanding of
the importance of
those lands for
Moraine conservation
(transition and buffer).
In 2001, the PCs in
understood this.
W-Stouffville has a supply
of 119 hectares of vacant
commercial properties.
69% are fully serviced
(2018). Compare
Richmond Hill, left.

W-Stouffville has a fifteen-


year supply without
unlocking its Greenbelt
lands.
Compare: 2006, 196 ha.;
2014: 154 ha. Town filled
77 ha. in 12 yrs.
W-Stouffville’s resolution to the province claims we
are in “desperate need of employment growth.”
True: the residential tax base is, comparatively, very
high.
Myth: we’re “desperate” or unfairly disadvantaged
in York Region. Compare:
• Georgina 90.4%
• Richmond Hill: 88.8%
• King 88.6%
• Aurora: 87.2%
• East Gwillimbury: 86.4%
(Markham and Newmarket have a better ratio)
Opening individual properties
immediately north of the Gormley
Settlement Area could be debated.
Package 1 (LEFT), for example, is Class 1
agricultural land, it backs on to protected
creek (linkage), and is beside a massive
cemetery (not the place for "light
industry").
Package 2 has some merit for conversion.
It is a strip of agric. land immediately
north of the present Gormley industrial
subdivision.
In 2015, a request by owners to the
Region (during Greenbelt Review) was
however rejected.
Two separate issues:
a) “servicing” (water and waste-water)
already commercially zoned lands in
Gormley and Vandorf; and
b) unlocking Greenbelt lands for a
perceived employment-land shortage.
The bid for (a) is regional, and has been
turned down multiple times. Stouffville
has one vote on Regional Council.
Servicing Gormley is not on the
Region’s 10-year priority plan, 2018-
2028.
LEFT: 10 year waste-water expansion
projects are all far from Gormley (black
circled area), and water pipes /plans
even further.
The Stouffville Review
repeats the false claim
that “Liberals” are to
blame for the Oak
Ridges Moraine Plan
governing Gormley
and burying its
economic potential.

It was the PC gov’t


under Mike Harris in
2001 that (wisely)
passed the Oak Ridges
Moraine Plan.
It is hard to monetize the benefits
of Greenbelt for Whitchurch-
Stouffville, e.g., as infrastructure
for mitigation of extreme weather
events.

But there are some stats for


agriculture & tourism.

The Region has a robust strategy


for the agriculture sector
“Unlocking the economic
potential” of our agricultural
land abutting Hwy 404?
There is so much more we can
do with Stouffville’s protected
“countryside,” Class 1 Farmlands
as Greenbelt lands.
Long-term commercial/ job growth in Stouffville?
We have serviced lands that need to be matched with the right businesses.
Start with low-hanging fruit for immediate & urgent action--based on principle that
“you have to at least try to look attractive to be attractive.” E.g., website:
• Info for “New Start-Ups” uses a “Community Profile” with Wayne Emmerson as
mayor;
• Link for “Available Properties” is broken;
• “Top Employer” uses a 2015 source;
• “Demographics” based on 2011 Census; “Quick Facts” for Town are 2015 estimates;
for Region older; background on Transit is a broken link to a broken 2015 Plan etc.
Key: wake up every morning and ask: Do we look like an up-to-date attractive place for
business? This is step 1. All of the above would turn away many.
Need think-tank with reps from multiple sectors. Think assets: train; high-tech region;
transit supportable, walkable density; proximity to hospital; *many* senior adult suites
coming; Rouge Park, Greenbelt; young, multicultural, educated population: brainstorm;
leverage to attract appropriate businesses for actual lands available.
Finally, was this a municipal election promise?
In the 2018 Municipal Election, some successful candidates spoke of servicing and unlocking
“under-serviced and under-utilized employment lands in W-Stouffville” (or similar).
No one, however, thought Doug Ford would rescind his stated 2018 election promise and
allow the Greenbelt to be unlocked for new employment lands.
No municipal politician saw this in October or can say they ran on that commitment.
Municipalities across Ontario are now lining up to say they will not allow their Greenbelt
lands to be used for commercial purposes.
Whitchurch-Stouffville however is the first town to ask the province that all protections from
their Greenbelt “countryside” lands (along Hwy 404 / Woodbine corridor) be removed.
Vigorous community discussion is needed before Council uses this drastic strategy to meet
budget. It was not discussed during the election period.
Council should make proposals, ask for studies, but also encourage full and open community
feedback. Developers should have their say too.
-Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

Você também pode gostar