Purpose of these amendments…

Purpose of these amendments to the Oak Ridges Moraine Plan:
- Remove lands from the Greenbelt Area that could be suitable for residential development in the near term 
- Add lands in the Paris Galt Moraine to the Greenbelt Area, designated as Protected Countryside with a Natural Heritage System
- Redesignate lands in the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan Area that could be suitable for residential development in the near term

"Analysis of Regulatory Impact:
The anticipated regulatory impacts of the proposal are positive. The proposed removal or redesignation of 15 areas of land and adding lands in the Paris Galt Moraine area is intended to remove regulatory burdens for municipalities in order to effectively direct growth, optimize investments in infrastructure and support needed housing. Lands to be removed would no longer need to comply with the prohibitions and requirements of the Greenbelt Plan. There would be some additional burden placed on the lands proposed to be added, though some of these lands are already constrained by existing requirements. While there are no direct administrative costs associated with this proposal there would be a small burden on municipalities to update their official plans to reflect the new boundaries of the Greenbelt Plan."

Excerpt from the above paragraph: "The proposed removal or redesignation of 15 areas of land and adding lands in the Paris Galt Moraine area is intended to remove regulatory burdens for municipalities in order to effectively direct growth, optimize investments in infrastructure and support needed housing."

My Comment: The municipalities did not consider there to be any regulatory burdens with regards to their ability to effectively direct growth, optimize investments in infrastructure or support needed housing. Intensification or increasing the density within the boundaries of the municipalities is all that is needed. The power to effectively direct growth will now be removed from the Official Plans. Municipalities have worked very hard to implement density targets (which the province has called for) and the province is now ignoring this planning. Municipalities have done their best to respect the Greenbelt Plan. The province is now steamrolling over the Greenbelt Plan - this is just to give developers the chance to build homes of their choosing which will likely be single family dwellings, and this just contributes to urban sprawl, something A Place to Grow has specified is not desirable. A Place to Grow instructs municipalities to create community hubs where residents can live, work and play in the same community. Building just houses does nothing to contribute to this goal. This is just urban sprawl which is not a sustainable way to grow communities.

"Remove lands from the Greenbelt Area that could be suitable for residential development in the near term ." My comment: The specified land is much more suitable for natural habitats to continue to exist, as stipulated by the Greenbelt Plan.

"Add lands in the Paris Galt Moraine to the Greenbelt Area, designated as Protected Countryside with a Natural Heritage System". My comment: The impetus for this is that the land in the Paris Galt Moraine is less desirable to developers than the 15 tracts of Greenbelt land that have been chosen to be redesignated as Settlement Areas. This serves the needs of the developers when the needs of the average Ontarian is ignored - the need to have green space for improved mental health and recreation.

The reason the Greenbelt was created was to protect it from development.