Georgina proposes greenbelt land swap Wetland For Farmland

NRU
May 20, 2015
Edward LaRusic

Plans to protect provincially significant wetlands at the cost of prime agricultural land in the greenbelt is about to be contested as the Town of Georgina council asks the province to amend the Greenbelt Plan by swapping designations.

At its May 13 council meeting, Georgina council requested the province to amend the Greenbelt Plan by exchanging designations for two sites in northwest Georgina owned by DG Group—formally known as Metrus Development. One site—Maple Lake Estates—comprises 500 acres of mostly wetlands and is currently designated towns and villages. The second site, located immediately to the south—Deer Park South—comprises 380 acres of mostly agricultural land and is designated protected countryside. Georgina asks that Maple Lake Estates be redesignated protected countryside and Deer Park South be redesignated towns and villages.

The designation swap is intended to allow the transfer of development permissions, which the DG Group has for a 1,073-unit mobile home retirement community, from Maple Lake Estates to Deer Park South lands. The redesignation is supported by town staff, York Region staff and the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority.

Local advocacy group North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance remains in opposition. At the council meeting, Mayor Margaret Quirk said that if the town wishes to preserve the wetlands, it has to move forward with the development swap. She added that there would be a subsequent process for the town and residents to review the proposal for the Deer Park South lands and raise any concerns at that time.

“If the ultimate goal… is to preserve those wetlands, then we have to move forward on the land swap. People may not be happy with the fact it’s taking some agricultural lands out of production… But without knowing what [DG Group’s plan] is, how can I say yes or no, how can council, how can the public?”

Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance executive director Janet Horner questioned why agricultural land should be considered less important than wetlands.

“Why do people feel that agricultural lands are where you can put anything if there is not another place to put it?” Horner told NRU. “Folks don’t get the fact that the one of the reasons the greenbelt was put in place was not just to protect wetlands but to protect agricultural lands… well [Georgina] got the first half of the message, but not the second half of the message.”

While acknowledging that the swap would require taking some land out of the Greenbelt Plan’s protected countryside, DG Group planner Keith MacKinnon (KLM Planning Partners Inc.) said that overall, more land would be designated protected countryside.

“In our view, this proposed swap is a win-win situation,” he told council. “That will preserve the wetland, the forest, and the watershed that the [North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance] believes should be preserved. That is the most important aspect of this whole proposed transfer.”

North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance chair Jack Gibbons disagrees. He told council that while his group supports redesignation of the Maple Lake Estates lands to protected countryside, allowing development to occur instead on other lands designated protected countryside is “not in the public interest.”

“[The Deer Park South lands] are within the Greenbelt Plan’s protected countryside. They are also off limits to development according to the official plans of both the Town of Georgina and [York Region],” Gibbons said. He added that most of the lands within Deer Park South are class one farmland.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe told NRU that his organization does not support the removal agricultural lands from the greenbelt.

“I would want to know, has the Town of Georgina already maximized its [provincial growth plan intensification] targets? Does it have [enough intensification within its urban boundaries] that it actually thinks it needs to go out and find more land? At the end of the day, it’s very, very easy to take good agricultural lands, pave them over and put in infrastructure,” McCabe said. “Taking land out of the greenbelt is not an option.”

The North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance had recommended the development permissions be transferred to an area in southern Keswick, Georgina’s largest urban community.

“[The Deer Park South] farmlands should be preserved to feed the people of the GTA, and they should be preserved to maintain Georgina’s rural character and its agricultural industry… It would simply be scandalous to pave over these precious and irreplaceable farmlands when there is still undeveloped lands within the Keswick Area.”

MacKinnon said that the proposed transfer of density from the Maple Lake Estate lands to the Keswick area is “not in the cards… They are two separate ownership groups. It’s not possible.”

Ward 3 councillor Dave Neeson, whose ward contains both the Maple Lake Estates and Deer Park South lands, agreed with Gibbons. He was the lone member of council to vote against requesting the province to allow the designation swap.

“The province has been looking to expand the greenbelt, not shrink it,” said Neeson, who supports keeping the Deer Park South lands for agriculture.

Gibbons and Neeson both noted that there has been no public consultation to determine whether Georgina residents actually support the swap.

MacKinnon responded that any proposal for the Deer Park South lands would require regional and local official plan amendments, both of which would involve a public process.

If the town doesn’t approve the development swap the fate of the wetlands on the Maple Lake Estates will be in the hands of the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Quirk told council. Should the authority refuse to issue a development permit, DG Group, could appeal to the provincial Mining and Land Commissioner.

The development swap, said town planning and building director Harold Lenters, would give Georgina the best opportunity to influence the outcome.

“The bottom line recommendation to council is that the [swap offers] the [best chance of] success and most control for the municipality,” said Lenters.

“The situation [with Maple Lake Estates] is a 27-year history of planning approvals enshrined in various documents,” Lenters added, which he believed would make it difficult for the conservation authority to refuse a permit. “The realization and the reality is this [development] trade, in my view, makes the best planning sense for the municipality.”

The request from Georgina council comes after DG Group has stated its intention to proceed with a permit to the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. A clause in the authority’s policies permits registered plans of subdivision to proceed despite the presence of wetlands.

McKinnon told council that the DG Group would not take any action on the Maple Lake Estates lands “until a successful conclusion of the transfer of density that is part of this discussion, or [the sunset date of May 2016 is reached], whichever occurs first.”

The Maple Lake Estate site was approved for residential development by the Ontario Municipal Board in 1987. At the time Bertan Investments Ltd. gained approval for a 1,073- unit mobile home retirement community on this site through a 1988 provincial order-in-council. The lands were later sold to DG Group. (See the September 10, 2014 edition of NRU.)