Safeguarding our future
Critics of Ontario’s proposed greenbelt expansion are quite right when they warn it will encourage urban “intensification,” creating more condominiums and fewer single-family homes. But that’s precisely the point.
The suburban dream of owning a lowrise house, complete with a big yard, driveway and white picket fence, will be considerably harder to achieve in the future. And for good reason: Society can no longer afford unbridled expansion of such homes at the expense of green fields and the environment. The “Greater Golden Horseshoe ” is Canada’s fastest-growing urban region, expected to hold four million more residents over the next 25 years. (To put that figure in context, it’s roughly the current population of Toronto, Mississauga and the City of Hamilton combined.)
Accommodating this influx — while avoiding crisis-level urban sprawl — requires smarter, more disciplined development. And recently announced changes to provincial growth plans for the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton and Niagara offer precisely the required reform.
The goal is to “promote compact, vibrant communities that support jobs and public transit,” Minister of Municipal Affairs Ted McMeekin said this week. It’s a worthy objective. Indeed, achieving it is essential for this dynamic urban area to thrive.
Rampant sprawl is to be discouraged by requiring at least 60 per cent of new residential development each year to occur within the existing built-up area of a municipality. City planners would be required to have special zoning along transit corridors, promoting high-density neighbourhoods sufficient to support public transit.
At the same time, a lot more territory is to be explicitly shielded from development. Four parcels of land identified by the City of Hamilton and Niagara Region are to receive a greenbelt designation.
Similar shelter is to be extended to 21 major urban river valleys and seven coastal wetlands. Other protections will be extended to “natural heritage systems,” such as wetlands, woodlands and rivers, beyond the existing greenbelt. Municipalities will have to plan for and preserve these natural assets.
Communities would also have to address flood risks, develop effective stormwater management and include climate change policies in their official plans.
The changes are based on a landmark report, appropriately titled “Planning for Health, Prosperity and Growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe: 2015-2041,” produced by an advisory panel headed by former Toronto mayor David Crombie.
Overall, the province’s current 800,000-hectare greenbelt would expand by an estimated 9,000 hectares. Developers aren’t happy, but this is the sort of growth most Ontarians would welcome. And it’s important that they say so.
Changes to Ontario’s goals for the Greater Golden Horseshoe are now open for public comment, including online and through a series of open houses. The viewpoints gathered will help to determine the final version of the plan and, in turn, shape the future of the region.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa was right to describe the proposed reform as a “historic” step, one that has been “neglected for far too long by previous regimes.”
If it isn’t done right, Ontarians can expect to lose a lot more green space to urban sprawl, breathe more air pollution, and have more commuters trapped on traffic-clogged highways. To avoid all that we need to put new focus on expanding and enhancing the treasure that is Ontario’s greenbelt.
Society can no longer afford unbridled expansion of the lowrise homes with big yards at the expense of green fields and the environment