Is Stouffville considering developing on the Greenbelt in the future?

Hwy. 48 visioning includes a potential extension of Hoover Park to McCowan

Yorkregion.com
June 5, 2020
Simon Martin 

Could the Town of Stouffville be looking developing Greenbelt land in the future? It certainly appears to be on their radar.

As the town is currently undertaking a Highway 48 corridor visioning exercise, proposals show Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine land between Highway 48 and McCowan being developed into residential and commercial uses in the future.

Ward 4 Coun. Rick Upton asked the obvious question to consultants from The Planning Partnership last month. “When we look at the visioning, how can we suggest that we go through the Oak Ridges Moraine and protected area? Why are we looking at land that we really can’t touch?” he said.

While the consultants didn’t really answer Upton’s question, the town's director of planning, Haiqing Xu, had an explanation. He said developers in that area have done some drilling in the soil in this area and found it does not belong to the Oak Ridges Moraine. Xu said it's incumbent on the town to bring that new information to the province.

Xu’s explanation set off alarm bells for some in the environmental community, including Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence.

“You can’t test soil to say it isn’t the Greenbelt. It is an administrative boundary,” he said. “It’s a ridiculous statement.”

Gray already was concerned that Flato Developments was granted an ministerial zoning order (MZO) this spring from the province to build a 507-unit development on land that was zoned "Whitebelt" (meaning outside the Greenbelt and undeveloped, but not protected from future urban development) on the border of Markham and Stouffville.

Gray said the development would have taken several years to go through the conventional planning process without an MZO. With several recent MZOs approved by the province, Gray said, it could lead to a return to the "wild west" of planning where municipalities are cut out of the process. When Stouffville council endorsed in principle an MZO for the Flato Development earlier this year, Mayor Iain Lovatt acknowledged that it was unusual. “This is maybe a deviation from the normal planning process, but it is addressing a major issue in our community,” Lovatt said at the time.

Last year, council directed staff to undertake a joint visioning exercise with the City of Markham for the Highway 48 corridor lands. The process started in December 2019 and is expected to be completed by August 2020. Flato, along with other landowners in the Highway 48 Corridor, agreed to fund the estimated $90,000 for the visioning exercise last year.

Lovatt cautioned that what is happening right now is very much a high-level visionary exercise. It is a consideration for a potential long-term plan of the area, and not intended as an exercise to achieve development approvals.

The study area includes the MZO development as well as the block of land between 19th Avenue and Stouffville Road and Highway 48 and McCowan Road.

Two of the three options that are part of the exercise have Hoover Park Drive extended to McCowan, which was a popular idea among some councillors. “I like the concept of roads right through to McCowan,” Ward 2 Coun. Maurice Smith said.

Residents can look at the various options and fill out a feedback survey by visiting cometogetherws.ca.