I would recommend to…

I would recommend to reinstate the authority of the local municipality to round-out hamlet boundaries in the greenbelt, that was originally in the 2006 Greenbelt plan, be added to the Proposed Provincial Planning Statement and the housekeeping amendment to the Greenbelt Plan.

Especially where the construction of Hwy 407 expropriated large portions of agriculture land in the greenbelt, leaving small, financially unviable agricultural parcels of land adjacent to hamlets. This would enable hamlet growth using physical constraints brought-in by the 407 creating natural de facto hamlet boundaries.

In 2016, some municipalities (Clarington), completed and passed, all the public consultations and official plan amendments to round-out hamlets but were delayed in regional bureaucracy for so long that the Provincial 2017 Greenbelt Plan came into effect without including the rounding-out of hamlets making the process a waste of tax payers’ money and resources. This left green belt farmers adjacent to Hwy 407 with financially unviable lands in zoning limbo.

Allowing the rounding-out of hamlets adjacent to the 407 in the green belt plan, and the Proposed Provincial Planning Statement would permit farmers whose lands were significantly truncated because of the 407, to expand the hamlet to the physical boundary of the 407, rounding-out the Hamlets’ residential zoning for much needed housing that would also be close to a major highway.