Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the plan. Based on the provided literature and maps, I strongly object to the proposed removal of these lands (maps 1-11) from the Green Belt.

The proposed plan to remove agricultural land and natural heritages areas from the Green Belt for the purpose of constructing more housing on expanded urban boundaries contradicts the objectives stated in the Green Belt Act, 2005, sections 5 (a-l).

Further Comments:

Some of the proposed removals will fragment the Green Belt. This will undermine the objective of creating ecosystem linkages and will make access for farming more difficult. This will also make the Green Belt more susceptible to future attempts to remove these isolated lands once they are not serving the objective of the Green Belt Act. Maps 1 and 7 include examples of this fragmentation.

There are a number of areas that reduce the protected areas around water ways such as the Rouge River and Duffins Creek. In some cases the small areas proposed would do little in terms of additional housing, but would have potential detrimental effects in terms of flood control, and health of the water ways, eg. maps 3,4,5 & 6.

Very large swaths of agricultural land are being proposed for removal (maps 6 & 9). The proposed added lands in the Paris Galt Moraine do not appear to balance this loss of agricultural land. The sheer size of the removals only promote the uncontrolled urban sprawl that the Green Belt Act was supposed to address.

It is difficult to understand why the lands in Maps 9 and 10 are being proposed for removal from the Green Belt, when there are already significant undeveloped areas nearby outside of the Green Belt. Also the lands in Map 9 appear to include a number of creeks.

The small area proposed for removal on Map 2 does not appear to be close to existing infrastructure and appears to only benefit one land owner.

I do support the addition of the Paris Galt Moraine lands to the Green Belt, but believe that it should have been added previously rather than used as a loop hole to remove other lands from the Green Belt. The Paris Galt Moraine lands support the recharge of groundwater aquifers supplying local drinking water, ecosystems and agriculture. The local communities rely on limited groundwater supply for drinking water as they are not close to other significant sources of water. Due to the limitation of water supply, this area is not a good candidate for intensive development so adding into the Green Belt would not significantly impact housing opportunities.