Vaughan environmental showdown fizzles as Pine Valley plan hits roadblock

YorkRegion.com
June 3, 2016
Adam Martin-Robbins  

Environmentalists were bracing for another epic showdown with municipal officials over a proposal to extend Pine Valley Drive through Boyd Conservation Area.

But, it turns out, that’s not going to happen — at least not for now.

Red flags shot up a week ago when Vaughan environmental activists spotted a staff report on the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority website.

The report recommended, in part, the agency’s board oppose a proposal by the Region of York, as part of its Transportation Master Plan update, to look at extending Pine Valley Drive south from Rutherford Road down through Boyd Park to Clubhouse Road, to complete the missing link to Langstaff Road.

But at the time the TRCA report was tabled, regional staff had already abandoned the idea, in part after discovering just more than a month ago that the City Of Vaughan, back in 2009, transferred ownership of the entire portion of the park where the road could possibly go to the conservation authority.

“Our understanding, based on the land ownership through there now, is the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority owns right up to the private residences that are on the east side of what would have been the Pine Valley corridor. Now that the conservation authority owns right up to that limit and it’s part of their protected valley lands system, it really is precluded from accommodating or having major transportation infrastructure built within it,” Stephen Collins, a director in the region’s transportation services department, said in an interview Thursday.

“Interestingly, it’s not something we knew about when our technical team was putting the initial recommendations forward. It (the transfer of ownership) only came to our attention quite late in the TMP (Transportation Master Plan) process when the conservation authority brought it to our attention.”      

Vaughan’s move to transfer ownership of the land to the TRCA happened a few years after a fierce battle between the city and a group of environmental activists, dubbed The Friends of Boyd Park, which included renowned author and historian Pierre Berton.

The provincial government abruptly ended that fight by stepping into the fray and quashing the city’s plans to extend the road through Boyd Park about a decade ago, due to concerns about the impact on an environmentally sensitive area.

Sony Rai, part of the group Sustainable Vaughan, was happy to learn the extension through the park, home to old-growth trees and endangered species, isn’t going ahead.

However, he’s a little concerned that it was even being looked at.

“That’s good news, but it’s troubling that it would even be considered given the provincial decision,” he said.

He also finds it troubling the region wasn’t aware the city had conveyed ownership of the road right-of-way lands to the TRCA.

Since it’s no longer an option to punch Pine Valley Drive through to Langstaff, Collins said the regional staff will now have to explore, through a future “special study”, alternative options for easing traffic congestion on Islington Avenue and Weston Road such as creating dedicated transit lanes or HOV (high occupancy vehicle or carpool) lanes.

“(We) would encourage the residents and businesses of the area to help us understand the needs as we go through that special study,” Collins said.

Before that process takes place, an updated version of the Transportation Management Plan, including without the proposal to look at extending Pine Valley Drive, is slated to go before York’s committee of the whole June 9 for adoption. 

Members of the public can share their views on that document, meant to outline at a high level the upper-tier municipality’s plans to deal with the population boom expected in York between now and 2041, at the meeting.

If the updated transportation plan is adopted by the committee, it will go to Regional council for ratification later in June, Collins said.