North Gwillimbury Forest development application details will be made public

YorkRegion.com
Aug. 13, 2015
Heidi Riedner  

Details of a disputed development application for the North Gwillimbury Forest will be made public after all after a recent tug of war over its release.

The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority “blinked”, according to The North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance, which has been after the conservation authority for months to make the details of a Sec. 28 permit application filed by DG Group (formerly Metrus) public regarding what’s known as its Maple Lake Estate lands north of Deer Park Drive in Keswick.

If approved, the permit would allow DG Group to go ahead with its housing development on land it owns in the forest, but what have subsequently been deemed to include significant wetlands by the province.

“This is a major victory for the people of Georgina and Ontario,” alliance chairperson Jack Gibbons said, crediting the hundreds of people who signed an petition calling on the authority to make DG Group’s application public for the turnaround this week.

“Combined with the fine work of our lawyer in making it clear that there was no legal justification for the LSRCA secrecy, this resulted in the authority agreeing to show us just what DG Group has proposed,” Gibbons said.

For months, the authority has denied the alliance’s repeated requests, stating permit applications are private under provincial privacy legislation.

In addition, the authority has repeatedly re-iterated it would not process the permit application until all avenues of a potential land swap negotiated by the province — that would transfer development rights to land DG Group owns on the south side of Deer Park Road and would deed ownership of the disputed lands into a public trust — are exhausted.

The authority, however, confirmed Monday it provided the application to the alliance through a freedom of information request and that DG Group gave its permission to release the documents.

“When DG Group’s application becomes public, we will be able to clearly see that you can’t put more than 1,000 mobile homes on a piece of land that is more than 80 per cent wetland and not affect the functioning of important natural systems,” Gibbons said.

“That’s the test DG Group has to pass in order for the LSRCA to issue a Section 28 permit. When it becomes apparent that DG Group cannot pass the test, there will be no excuse for further stalling by the LSRCA.”

DG Group’s application should be denied and more sensible options explored, such as discussing options for the Keswick urban growth area instead of threatening to move development into the heart of the Greenbelt, Gibbons added.