The process continues

NRU
June 14, 2018
Rob Jowett

Halton Hills is trying to replace 75 ha of employment lands frozen in the ongoing study of the GTA West corridor.

Council approved the early transfer of 75 ha into its Premier Gateway Employment Area--used primarily for logistics and warehousing--to replace lands caught up in the Northwest GTA Corridor Identification Study. The 75 ha come from two lots, one portion an urban area and the other a rural one. Both had been planned to be added to the employment area in 2021-31. But the process has stalled again.

“This is really intended to replace lands that we can’t currently develop south of Steeles that have been designated and zoned for development since 2000,” Halton Hills planning policy manager Steve Burke told NRU. “It’s important for the town to proceed with these lands to allow us to continue to develop the area for employment uses.”

June 11, the town approved the relevant official plan amendments to transfer the property into the employment area. Now they need to be approved by Halton Region council, which Burke says is supportive.

“The bottom line is that we still are required under the provincial planning rules to protect that corridor,” says Burke. “And so the town and the region continues to take the position that given that those lands aren’t available we should be allowed to replace them elsewhere.”

However, the province has appealed the regional amendment which enabled the town to add 75 ha to its employment area to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, stalling the process.

“I don’t want to say [we’ve been] sidetracked by the province, but [it’s] asked a lot of questions and asked for reports that [weren’t] part of our original plan,” says ward 2 councillor Bryan Lewis.

The town has been asked to complete a municipal comprehensive review before the province can consider allowing the lots to be added to the employment area.

“The whole idea behind it was not to have everything come to a stop but to put it into two units that allowed us now to ask for both regional and provincial approvals,” says Lewis.

He says residents with property caught up in the study are frustrated with the process. They have not been able to make any changes to their properties because of the uncertainty.

“The public was upset,” he says. “If you live there, you just want some resolve as to what it is you’re doing… with your property.”

Also, the landowners of the 75 ha are waiting to know whether they can begin to build in the new employment area.

While the urban lot will become part of the employment area as soon the official plan amendment is adopted by regional council, the official plan amendment for the rural lot will be considered by LPAT, says Burke.

The Northwest GTA Corridor Identification Study began in 2018 after the province cancelled the GTA West Corridor environmental assessment.