'As much sprawl as they can get away with': Residents furious with East Gwillimbury's growth plan

Thestar.com
Nov. 1, 2021

If you think the development in East Gwillimbury is bad now, it could get much more significant in the next 30 years.

A decision at York Region council on Oct. 21 to open up 70 per cent of the town’s whitebelt lands for future development drew the ire of many residents, environmentalists and even a few politicians, calling it the continuation of urban sprawl.

“It looks like East Gwillimbury council is in fact representing East Gwillimbury landowners,” Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition executive director Claire Malcolmson said. “The builders win. They buy land. They don’t care about the lifestyle of the people that live there. We should not be giving these people as much power as they have. This is ruining the province.”

Malcolmson said phosphorus levels in Lake Simcoe are already much higher than the targets set out in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan and more development in the area will only make things worse.

Malcolmson wasn’t the only one not pleased by the town’s direction. Ward 1 Coun. Loaralea Carruthers said the decision to open up those whitebelt lands for development in the next 30 years made no sense. “My concern is opening up all the whitebelt lands could lead to urban sprawl,” she said. “Most residents seem to to think the growth has already happened but with the plans we have, growth will continue at this rate for the next 20 years.”

East Gwillimbury had originally asked the region to open 100 per cent of its whitebelt lands for development until 2051, but members of regional council deemed that too much to ask. York Region chief administrative officer Bruce Macgregor even said it was “greedy” to be asking for all the lands to be included in the growth plan. Mayor Virginia Hackson said people need to remember that only a small portion of land in East Gwillimbury is developable. “75 per cent of our land is protected. Only 17 per cent of the entire land mass can be developed,” she said. “Prime agricultural lands are protected in the greenbelt.”

Hackson said the 70 per cent number allows the municipality to be a little creative in future planning.  

But vocal residents voiced their displeasure with the town’s plan, claiming it would lead to sprawl. “It’s a totally ludicrous proposal,” Holland Landing resident Bill Foster said.

Sally Shearman from Sharon Creek Farm on 2nd Concession said whitebelt lands aren’t needed for future development and that farmland loss can be avoided by completing existing communities. “The current growth plan betrays existing York Region residents by squandering the next 30 years of growth on more low-density car-dependent sprawl,” she said.

Others pointed out who benefited from the decision. “What purpose can this possibly serve, other than to meet the insatiable appetite of developers,” resident Wendy Kenyon said.

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said the whitebelt lands in East Gwillimbury are not needed to meet growth targets in the next 30 years. “I don’t get it,” he said.

At the meeting on Oct. 21, region council voted in favour of increasing urban settlement areas -- potentially opening up 80 per cent of the remaining undeveloped “whitebelt” land for development. Regional planning staff recommended 50 per cent of growth be confined to existing settlement until 2041.

The remaining growth would come from opening up 2,050 hectares of land in undeveloped farmland and countryside areas. A motion by Taylor to opt for a 60 per cent rate (700 hectares) instead, in order to build denser, more environmentally friendly developments in existing communities, was defeated in a 5-16 vote.

Malcolmson said that we are in a climate crisis, but there is little evidence that politicians care. “I’m furious. I can’t begin to imagine what values someone has in 2021 to vote in favour of as much sprawl as they can get away with,” she said.