Stouffville’s mayor wants Ontario to fast-track an ‘agrihood’ that mixes new housing with farming. Locals aren’t so sure

Thestar.com
Nov. 8, 2021
Noor Javed

When Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt looks out at the subdivisions being built around the GTA, all he sees is ... much of the same.

The same row houses, similar style developments, the same “builders homes.”

And he knows for the most part, with thousands of homes approved in the south end of the town, near McCowan and Stouffville Road through two minister zoning orders, or MZOs -- his town will eventually look the same.

So when Lovatt was approached about another MZO -- a tool that allows the minister of municipal affairs to change the zoning of land to fast track development -- in the area for 1,000 more homes on 30 hectares of land, he approached the developer, ORCA Equity Lands, to consider a new idea: a so-called agrihood.

“Our roots are all in agriculture ... and a lot of our municipality is protected countryside and is farmed today,” said Lovatt, who is still waiting for the provincial decision on the MZO.

Lovatt’s agrihood vision consists of a community garden, a farm that grows produce to be sold at a local farmer’s market, and a refurbished barn to double as community space flanking a “market street” that would welcome visitors from across the region.

“Development is coming, and growth is coming to our community,” he said. “I just thought to myself, ‘Is there a way we could be doing something differently?’”

Agrihoods, which have caught on in the U.S. and are making in-roads in Canada and finally the GTA, claim to combine the positives of a walkable community with the benefits of a “farm-to-table” local food supply. But to their critics, they are nothing more than a marketing tool designed to make development on or near environmentally sensitive lands more palatable.

“It’s a sales job just to try and make people feel good about development on top of existing farms,” said local councillor Sue Sherban. “In the case of Stouffville, there was no thought on how this is going to work.”

She said the development is being proposed without any real plan or discussion with the broader community about whether it’s something they even want. It’s even unclear if the land, which borders the protected Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine, is even suited for such a development.

In contrast, the Southlands development in Tsawwassen, B.C., heralded as a model for agrihood in Canada, took decades to come to fruition and involved extensive discussions with residents, the municipality and with those who have successfully built agrihoods in the United States.

Sean Hodgins, president of development company Century Group, said the project, located in the lower mainland of B.C., has been 24 years in the making. Hodgins said his family bought the land in 1989, in the “ashes of a failed development of another company” and had to get the buy-in of the town and locals to move the project forward.

“The history of this property is agricultural, and (the model) really responded to some deep-seated community concerns that agriculture was going to get lost in the shuffle,” he said.

“It isn’t a binary thing: it isn’t pave it or preserve it as agriculture. It’s more like, how will the farm respond to the community?” he added. “If you say you want an urban farm, what is the assurance the farm will be there decades from now?”

“You have to go from thinking of a vast swath of farmland that is just seen as a buffer to development ... to one that is truly embraced and valued that people will fight for it.”

A refurbished barn is part of a new agrihood development in B.C. called Southlands that's been in the works for 24 years.

The 110-acre development includes homes, apartments, cottages and condos adjacent to 425 acres of publicly owned farm, which Hodgins deeded back to the municipality. The company leased back 50 acres and hired a farmer to manage it. It also paid $9 million to help with irrigation and winter flood mitigation of the farmland.

The development -- mostly sold out -- also includes community allotment gardens, a farmers’ market, coffee shops and heritage barns that have been refurbished into community spaces.

Hodgins admitted “it is difficult to reconcile” the urban and rural landscapes, and said each agrihood project is entirely different than the next. He said that while he believes “it can be done elsewhere, I just don’t think the developers who are saying they can do it, are really committed to doing it.”

Across the country, the proof of the complexity of such a project is already being seen.

In Quebec, residents living in an agrihood development called Hendrick Farm launched legal action in July against the developer who allegedly reneged on his promise to build an organic farm on the property -- and open up that space for community use instead.

In a statement, Fred Brisco, vice-president with the Landlab development firm, said that the farm was “not sustainable over the long term.”

“After eight years of operating the 5-acre farm with a full farm staff -- and diminishing sales in the last few years -- it became obvious that we had to change the way the space was operated to substantially lower the labour costs associated with it, while still preserving it as an agricultural space”

Now instead of a farm, they have a large area for community farm plots, a space for a chicken coop, wild flower meadows, berry patches and bee hives, and community gathering places.

Ontario’s first agrihood project is already under way in the one traffic-light town of Drayton, about 50 kilometres north of Kitchener near the Conestoga River where Trevor Prior, with Prior Construction Corporation, said they are hoping to build a tourist spot.

“Our vision is to make it a destination: make a restaurant, micro-brewery, grow and sell local food, and 15 acres or so will continue to be farmed,” said Prior, adding that the adjacent housing development has been underway for more than 20 years. “We think it will add a lot to the community, but there is also a desire for ‘agro-tourism’ for weekened day trippers.”

He added that the development will also include a driving range and nature paths.

Back in Stouffville, the proposed agrihood is being received by locals with some skepticism.

Kim Empringham, a local farmer based in Stouffville, said it’s important to remember the development will be built on farmland that is currently in use. “I understand growth needs to happen, but to pave over a farm to build a ‘farm-friendly’ development doesn’t really make sense.”

She said it’s hard to know if the developer is really behind the idea or if -- given the ask for a MZO -- it’s “just a way to get their houses built faster.”

She points out that the developer has little to lose, as the “community agricultural area” is proposed for land that is within the protected countryside designation of the Oak Ridges Moraine, and can’t be built on.

Lovatt said he understands the doubt from the community, but said this “could become a destination for the broader community” and is “committed” to consultation with the community, if the MZO is approved.

“I will be the first to admit that this is a bit of test,” said Lovatt. “I think there has to be a way to do things differently. The vision here is to build communities around community farming.”