Richmond Hill warns Caledon's idea endangers Greenbelt

Brenda Hogg calls move dangerous

Richmond Hill Liberal
April 9, 2014
By Kim Zarzour

Richmond Hill councillors are calling on other municipalities in the GTA area to oppose a resolution by Town of Caledon council that they say could destroy Ontario’s Greenbelt.

Caledon council sent a letter to the province and 47 municipalities in southern Ontario - including those in York Region - calling for the removal of the Greenbelt Plan area from the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

The Greenbelt Plan aims to provide protection from urban sprawl and development to 1.8 million acres of environmentally sensitive areas and farmland around the Golden Horseshoe.

As part of the provincially mandated 10-year review, Caledon councillors suggested the province consider removing the Greenbelt Plan from the Growth Plan. The town is circulating that resolution to other municipalities in the Golden Horseshoe, requesting their support.

They won’t get it from Richmond Hill. Regional Councillor Brenda Hogg says it’s dangerous.

“I would move that we deny our support of this motion in the strongest form possible,” Ms Hogg said at council Monday night.

Time is of the essence, she said.

“We need to get the message out there that this is in the worst interest of everybody in the public who fought long and hard to get protective legislation for our natural environment and for our farmland.”

Community activist and Ward 5 candidate Karen Cilevitz brought the issue forward as a delegation, calling on the town to show leadership.

If the removal of the Greenbelt Plan is intended by Caledon to offer greater protection, Richmond Hill should applaud it, she said, but if not, the move must be condemned “in the most resounding manner”.

“It is of the greatest importance that we as a municipality make it quite clear to the province that the Greenbelt ... is not to be messed with under any circumstances.”

Most other councillors agreed.

Urban sprawl has taken away some of the most valuable farmland in Canada, Regional Councillor Vito Spatafora said. “To remove the Greenbelt Plan would leave a vacuum and be ... disastrous to the future of our communities.”

“If Caledon has their own hidden agenda for their own purpose, let it be their responsibility,” said Ward 5 Councillor Nick Papa. “But to me, it’s clear. We fought, as Ms Hogg has said, for protection and we should stick to it.”

But two councillors, Greg Beros and Carmine Perrelli, called for the item to be referred back to staff to allow time for Richmond Hill’s CAO to clarify what the Caledon councillors were trying to accomplish.

Mr. Perrelli, councillor for Ward 2, said he wanted more time to determine the exact boundaries of the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt and whether the resolution refers to land in Richmond Hill.

“Are we going against [Caledon’s] wishes without knowing their motivation? Does it include us as well?”

A map was brought forward showing the Horseshoe area does include Richmond Hill, and CAO Joan Anderton pointed out the letter was sent to Richmond Hill.

Mr. Beros, Oak Ridges councillor, questioned whether Richmond Hill should be interfering with a municipality’s desire to write a letter to the province or become involved in another town’s community design.

“Are they in fact, as the motion would indicate, trying to clear the way for development in their community,” he asked, “or are they trying to protect, trying to maintain their existing community?”

Debbe Crandall, policy advisor for Save the Oak Ridges Moraine and a member of the Greenbelt Alliance, found the Caledon resolution “extremely disturbing”, especially coming from a town recognized as the greenest town in Ontario.

Caledon Regional Councillor Richard Paterak thinks it’s all a big misunderstanding.

“The intent of my motion was for a clear demarcation of the Greenbelt Plan and the Growth Plan with no overlap,” he said. “We’re not monkeying with the Greenbelt Plan. We’re setting up borders.”

Caledon’s motion intends for the Growth Plan, which requires 50 people or jobs per hectacre, to be shrunk back to the boundary of the Greenbelt Plan, he said.

“I do not see value in having the a Growth Plan in force in an area designated as Greenbelt.”

Ana Bassios, Richmond Hill’s planning commissioner, says the plans are designed to work in concert with each other.

The Caledon motion was poorly written, Mr. Spatafora said. If Caledon councillors’ intent was to keep the Greenbelt Plan intact, that’s not how it was interpreted by most councillors.

For Ms Crandall, the Caledon resolution and response from Richmond Hill is a clarion call for the province to step in now and set parameters for the 10-year review.

“It’s telling us without the leadership of the province, this kind of thing is going to happen,” she said.

“We all need to rise up and support the Greenbelt.”