Fight against sprawl heats up
Fight against sprawl heats up
Action by a neighbouring municipal government may block the provincial government push that is threatening to convert the rest of Hamilton’s unprotected farmland to residential subdivisions. While Hamilton has accepted that new provincial sprawl rules make inevitable a massive expansion of the city’s urban area, politicians in Halton are determined to fight the Ford government.
Last week, the town council of Halton Hills unanimously called for a substantial delay in the provincial deadline for completion of new municipal growth plans intended to accommodate predicted population increases to 2051. That decision is expected to be strongly endorsed when it goes before the full Halton regional council later this week.
Regional councillor Jane Fogal’s motion demands that the province “suspend the timetable” imposed on municipalities for finalizing their plans for the next 30 years of growth. She and her council colleagues argue there first must be full public consultation on the required growth plans.
“Simply put, this is just too important a planning document to not insist on having a more robust consultation program by Halton Region and one that includes in-person engagement,” says Fogal. “I recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has negated our ability to gather, but [this] has significant implications to our already dwindling farmland which we know is integral to our food sustainability.”
The stipulation for “in-person engagement” would push off the consultation and decisions at least until the end of pandemic restrictions and well beyond the next provincial election in June 2022 when voters have the opportunity to change the decision-makers at Queen’s Park. The 18-year mayor of Halton Hills, Rick Bonnette, backed up Fogal’s motion with a public statement.
He didn’t mince words about his opposition to the Ford government’s “marching orders” which he characterized as “significant changes to a number of provincial policies all aimed to assist the development industry”. Bonnette said the provincial pressure compromises a “Halton Hills Charter of Public Engagement” that he helped put in place.
The multiple changes imposed in the last two years not only specify how much growth each municipality must accommodate by 2051, but also require that cities must use a “market-based” needs analysis to determine how much land will be consumed and then immediately rezone those lands to meet that alleged need.
“This means designating rural land now to provide housing up to 30 years in the future,” explained Bonnette. “Your council is being asked to make these decisions in the middle of a world pandemic as to how much growth we plan to have to the year 2051 without, in our view, any proper community consultation.”
In Hamilton the land needs assessment has asserted that three-quarters of the demand will be single family houses and townhouses, requiring thousands of acres to be urbanized to accommodate them. In response, the latest public consultation process pointedly excluded the “no more sprawl” fixed urban boundary option and instead asked residents to choose only among options that will completely eliminate Hamilton’s remaining farmland that is not otherwise protected by the Greenbelt.
City planners argued that a ‘no urban boundary expansion scenario’ was not considered in the Land Needs Assessment prepared by Lorius and Associates consultants because it would require that 81 percent of new growth be located inside the current urban boundary.
“The Land Needs Assessment did not model this scenario because an intensification rate this high far exceeds the city’s forecasted demand for intensification,” stated the planners’ consultation slide show.
That puts the planners in direct conflict with those pushing for serious climate action. Resident groups like Environment Hamilton contend that more sprawl is incompatible with the city’s climate emergency declaration and its promise to cut carbon emissions to zero over the same 30-year time frame. Among other arguments they cite the province’s former Environmental Commissioner who has repeatedly stated that “urban sprawl is Ontario’s tar sands”.
Environment Hamilton is hosting an on-line webinar Tuesday evening to inform residents of what they can do to oppose the sprawl plans, freeze the urban boundary and help build “a sustainable, climate resilient, inclusive Hamilton.”
