'Why are you wasting your time?': Critics blast Stouffville for expanding into Oak Ridges Moraine

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 4, 2021

Stouffville council and Mayor Iain Lovatt have been nothing if not consistent. For three years they have stated their desire to expand their settlement area into the Oak Ridges Moraine in Gormley to grow the town's business base along the Highway 404 corridor.

But numerous requests to the province appear to have gone unanswered.

Lovatt launched what could be the final salvo in the saga Oct. 21 at York regional council, which voted in favour of increasing urban settlement areas -- potentially opening up 80 per cent of the remaining undeveloped “whitebelt” land for development.

"We have, for too long, been overlooked," Lovatt said. "Ultimately, we need the province to decide and bring clarity."

Stouffville and Lovatt's problem is that expanding the settlement area into the Oak Ridges Moraine and greenbelt is a line that the province appears not to be willing to cross. York Region planning staff told Lovatt as much and said there was little to no chance of provincial approval.

Residents and former politicians also chastised the town for trying to breach the Oak Ridges Moraine with further development.

"I am deeply disappointed," said Steven Gilchrist, former minister of municipal affairs and housing. "It flies in the face of what the current premier has said. Why are you wasting your time," he added.

Gilchrist was instrumental in kick-starting the drive to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine in the late '90s. He said the repeated attempts by various councils and developers to breach the protection of the Oak Ridges Moraine is an exercise in futility and insulting to voters. "I can't stress it strongly enough (protecting the Oak Ridges Moraine) was one issue that every political party agreed on," he said.

Markham resident Alexis Whalen said she is concerned about what happens to requests from other towns if Stouffville is allowed to compromise the Moraine. Whalen called on regional council to consider a hard urban boundary for at least 10 years to wait for clarity on environmental solutions and carbon emission reduction.

“I want a livable future for my children and all the children,” she said. “You want me to be concerned about where they will live, but I’m way more concerned about how they will live. Will they even have a livable planet, and if they don’t, what does it matter if the market offers them a single-detached home with a patch of grass?”

For Whalen, the whitebelt is another way of saying prime farmland. "What if this growth that we have just approved is not practical. We have literally given the farm away and we may not be able to turn back," she said.

Unlike the Greenbelt, which is protected, the whitebelt is designated as prime agricultural and countryside areas that can be rezoned as residential to accommodate future growth and employment targets set by the province, including a projected 2.2 million people forecasted to call York Region home by 2051.

While Lovatt got regional council to support him in asking the province to expand the settlement area in Gormley and the Oak Ridges Moraine, if they say no, Plan B would see 100 per cent of the whitebelt land in Stouffville as potentially developable. It was a solution Lovatt derided. "We will throw people in cars and increase the CO2 emissions in Whitchurch-Stouffville and make people drive everywhere to get groceries. It makes zero sense," he said.

Regional planning staff recommended 50 per cent of growth be confined to existing settlement until 2041. Over the following 10 years, 55 per cent of growth would take place in those areas.

The remaining growth would come from opening up 2,050 hectares of land in undeveloped farmland and countryside areas.

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor forwarded a motion to opt for a 60 per cent rate (700 hectares) instead -- to build denser, more environmentally friendly developments in existing communities.

Taylor's motion was defeated in a 5-16 vote.

Gilchrist said the extra land wasn't needed to meet growth targets and the only reason it was included was to do favour for specific developers.

"There is too many people making too much money with urban sprawl," he said. "It's not responsible to destroy buffer zones."