Thank you for accepting the…

Thank you for accepting the Township of East Garafraxa’s comments about the proposed Greenbelt Expansion.

The Township Council is not in favour of the proposed Greenbelt Boundary Expansion. There are already existing layers of protection and the Township has always been a steward of the protection of the land and the environment.

The Province’s presentation on February 8, 2018 in Orangeville was very poor in that there was insufficient information about the moraines, streams and wetlands locations in relation to people’s properties and how the Greenbelt expansion would affect their lands. A presentation including a period for questions and answers would have been more appropriate for understanding the study.

Concerns have been raised that it would impact on future farm practices by imposing limitations.

The Rural lands that will be affected by the Greenbelt expansion will be restricted of their potential to sever lots and establishing uses that are incompatible with agricultural and environmentally sensitive areas and are not suitable in residential areas or hamlets. It will create limitations to potential financial revenues to the municipalities by taking away the already limited potential for growth of the Rural designation. If growth restriction is imposed to the Rural designation and any other designations, there should be some form of compensation from those areas allowed to grow.

The Township requests that the existing approved designations located within the final expanded Greenbelt boundary which predates the 2005 Greenbelt Plan be recognized and continue to be exempt from the application of the Greenbelt Plan Policies.

Aggregate extraction should be better regulated by the Greenbelt Plan especially in cases of extraction below the water table in order to protect water and having consideration to the cumulative effect of active pits and disturbed areas to reduce adverse impacts. Maximizing rehabilitation should be required.

There should be consistency between all Provincial Plans and new regulations that have increased limitation on land uses at different levels and for several matters.

[Original Comment ID: 213529]