I am very concerned about…

I am very concerned about the lack of affordable housing in Ontario, but this policy seems to create more problems (eg increase sprawl, reduce local food security by sacrificing farmland to development, removing Greenbelt space which is important for residents’ mental and physical well being, as well as buffering floods and other weather-related issues) without doing enough to ensure affordable housing. Please do not sacrifice our Greenbelt and increase sprawl. Instead:

-create policy that encourages medium density of developments (eg mandate that for each hectare of farmland and wildlife habitat, 80 or more residents must be housed).

-Require areas that are already developed to upzone their existing infrastructure to accommodate 60% or more of new housing.

-mandate municipalities seize all opportunities for efficient infill development, and improve the efficiency of existing development plans, before resorting to more labour and resource-intensive expansions of urban boundaries into farms, forests and greenspace

-consult the local community about using farmland and greenspace for development and do not override their feedback.

Thank you for considering my comments and for your hard work in addressing the housing crisis.