Holding the line
New festival celebrates region’s efforts to curb urban sprawl
WATERLOO REGION — There are festivals celebrating pretty much everything, from beer to vintage cars, but it’s not every day you hear of a festival that celebrates an urban planning policy.
But that’s exactly what a new local festival, called Hold the Line, intends to do.
It’s a cycling and folk music festival taking place Sept. 16 in St. Jacobs that celebrates the Region of Waterloo’s countryside line.
The region introduced the countryside line in 2009 as a way to control development and urban sprawl. The line contains future growth within the region’s urban areas, to protect farmland and sensitive natural areas such as wetlands and groundwater recharge areas from development.
Developers objected, saying it set overly strict limits on the amount of land available for development. The original policy set aside 80 hectares; developers wanted more 1,000 hectares. The 2015 Ontario Municipal Board ruling settled on 450 hectares of land to be opened to new development by 2019.
“The countryside line does so much to define what we are as a community,” said Sean Campbell, one of the festival organizers. “It protects great things like our Mennonite farms and our farmers’ markets selling local foods.”
But as they followed the region’s defence of the policy at the municipal board, Campbell and his friends realized most people have no idea the policy exists or understand its benefits.
“What better way to bring awareness than a fun day of music?” he said.
The idea began when a group of friends who were interested in the environment decided to go for a bike ride along the countryside line. “Then we thought, ‘Why not invite a few more friends?’ Then we thought we should have a barbecue, and then we thought if we’re having a barbecue we need to have music,” Campbell said.
It’s now grown to a daylong event with camping, community sponsors, live music, workshops, kids’ activities, and both long and short cycling tours. Cyclists will have access to free bike tune-ups, a rescue van and camp showers.
Organizers are also hoping that people learn a bit about the policy and how it aims to protect farms and encourage compact cities.
“We’re hoping that when we have conversations with our peers and our colleagues, more and more of them will know about the countryside line and what it does, and make the connection between having a really great meal at a local restaurant and protecting our farmland, and having really great livable cities,” said organizer Alex Szaflarska
Sprawl encourages spread-out development and the need for cars; confining development to urban areas leads to more walkable, compact cities, said Sam Nabi, another organizer. “More and more people moving in to the urban areas means there’s going to be more and more things close by — more businesses, more jobs, more stores.”
The festival’s music lineup is still being developed, but so far includes a half-dozen performers including guitarist Richard Garvey and singer JoJo Worthington.
For more information, go to holdthelinewr.org