‘It just doesn’t seem right’: Markham council asked Doug Ford’s government to fast-track development in farmland despite opposition from residents and staff

Thestar.com
March 2, 2021
Noor Javed

When Ryan Drudge looks out at snow-covered farmland around him, he knows change is coming.

The farmer just never expected it would come so fast.

Drudge, who lives on his one-acre farm in Whitchurch-Stouffville near McCowan Road and 19th Avenue, has watched a Markham-based developer get approval for three development projects in the span of a year on the agricultural and environmentally sensitive land that surrounds his property.

“We were told (by municipal staff) that both Markham and Stouffville didn’t have any plans to look at this land until at least 2041,” said Drudge. His farm is surrounded by the land that was sold by his grandfather to FLATO Developments Inc., a few years ago, and is still rented out by a farmer to grow sweet corn.

“Myself and other farmers in the area, we aren’t opposed to development -- I know it needs to happen,” he said. “It’s just the way this developer is going about it: jumping the queue, bypassing regional planners, local governments and the public process.”

The developments around the Drudge farm were fast-tracked using a minster’s zoning order -- a tool that gives the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing the power to designate land use without the possibility of appeals.

The minister, Steve Clark, has repeatedly said MZOs are only issued if a request is endorsed by a municipality. But in Markham, the MZO request was approved at a Feb. 9 council meeting even though staff, residents and a number of councillors raised concerns around the lack of public process, the environmental impact and the loss of farmland -- leading to questions about what it takes for a municipality to actually say no to an MZO.

FLATO did not respond to questions from the Star.

Last year, the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville endorsed two MZO requests for the land around Drudge’s farm from FLATO for projects outside the city’s urban boundary and bordering on protected Greenbelt lands. The province then issued the orders, fast-tracking a 1,964-home development and a 500-unit project.

With those two MZOs in hand, FLATO appeared at Markham council last month, asking for the third MZO bordering the Stouffville developments near Drudge’s farm, for nearly 900 homes and two six-to-eight storey apartment buildings, even though the land is also situated outside the city’s urban boundary.

According to the staff report, city staff said no to the request.

“As the lands with the FLATO MZO request are outside the urban boundary and Markham Council has not yet considered how growth to 2051 should be directed, Markham staff is of the opinion that the request is premature.”

Markham council passed the motion for the request 8-5.

The urban boundary of a municipality is the land that has been serviced and is planned for development. Land outside the urban boundary is often times deemed agricultural, or “white belt” and can only be opened up through a lengthy official plan review process.

Regional councillor Jack Heath, who voted against the MZO, said there is a long-standing process of bringing new land into the urban boundary, and that “decades of developing a planning process was thrown out the window.”

“This one is precedent setting and now we won’t be able to say no to any MZO that comes our way,” he said, adding that there are currently a number of cases in front of the land tribunal with developers trying to get development rights inside the urban boundary.

At the Feb. 9 Markham council meeting, Shakir Rehmatullah, president and founder of FLATO, said once he gets an MZO, he would go through all the planning processes required, such as submitting a site plan and a public meeting.

“I can assure you it will be a typical, routine application,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Don Hamilton said that will be unlikely, given the entire area has no infrastructure for water or sewage and is still on wells and septic tank.

“This would have been the last part of the city to even be considered for residential use,” said Hamilton, who was one of five councillors who voted against the MZO. “The developer did what you would expect a developer to do but it’s unfortunate that council threw its planning principles out the window.”

Markham resident Marilyn Ginsburg, who spoke at a committee meeting the day before, said given the opposition, she thought there “was no hope it would pass.”

“There was not one deputation in favour of it, not one. The planning staff of Markham was against it, and the planning staff of the region was against it,” said Ginsburg.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, though, showed his support for the MZO at the meeting. “If this was a development sitting in isolation, then we might have issues it is part of a bigger plan,” he said. “I take pride in the fact that we have done good planning, it has engaged the community and we will with this application, engage the community even further.”

Ginsburg said that when Scarpitti spoke at the meeting, he said that this was “already a part of the subdivision that is in the works” on the other side of the street in Stouffville.

“There’s no subdivision there,” Ginsburg said. “There’s only farmland.”

Ward 6 Coun. Amanda Collucci said she approved the MZO because of the affordable housing for seniors component to the application. According to the motion submitted to the province, the city asked for “an additional 100 affordable units” be provided in the development.

For Drudge, the changing landscape around him could mean he will likely have to leave his beloved farm sooner than he expects.

“There’s going to be dust, erosion and a loss of groundwater impact all of the things I rely on for my livelihood,” he said.

“In the end, whatever will happen will happen,” added Drudge. “But the way these things have gone for this developer, it just doesn’t seem right.”