Provincial growth plans won't stop skyrocketing house prices: developers

Yorkregion.com
May 26, 2017
By Lisa Queen

Environmentalists are mixed in their reaction to the provincial government’s new growth plans for the Greater Golden Horseshoe while the development industry warns they won’t alleviate the housing crunch and escalating prices.

“The province has confirmed its commitment to curbing urban sprawl and continuing to protect the Greenbelt. Urban river valleys will also be given protection under the revised Greenbelt Plan,” Sony Rai, director of Sustainable Vaughan, said after Queen’s Park released its final growth plans for the Greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine, the Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Niagara Escarpment May 18.

Already Canada’s most densely populated area, the sprawling region stretching from Peterborough to Niagara, is forecast to grow by four million people to a total of 13.5 million over the next quarter century.

The provincial plans will result in more densely packed housing that makes better use of infrastructure, Rai said.

“The province is forcing the development industry to build more housing on existing lands where services exist and making the development of single and semi-detached homes very limited. This is important as York Region is currently comprised of approximately 85 per cent single and semi-detached homes in car-dependent neighbourhoods.” he said.

“In order to make these changes happen, the province will need to continue its commitment to funding public transportation infrastructure. This is critical as the need to house new residents to the GTA over the next 20 years will be a challenge if we don’t attract higher density development at or near transit corridors and where existing services already exist.”

While the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance is upset the province didn’t announce a significant expansion of the Greenbelt, it said positive changes include minimal corrections to the Greenbelt’s original boundaries with no land swapping and a process to grow the Greenbelt to further protect at-risk water supplies.

However, changes to settlement areas in the Greenbelt raise questions about the province’s commitment to curbing urban sprawl, Debbe Crandall, policy director of Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) Coalition, said.

“There is no shortage of land for housing with many thousands of acres pre-approved for development across the region,” she said in a statement.

“The province pulled back from freezing urban boundary expansions at this stage. We will be closely watching to ensure that new clarity in the plans will eliminate ongoing land speculation on prime farmland, important natural spaces and the edges of rural communities. Our fight will continue.”