On behalf of Haldimand…

On behalf of Haldimand County, I would like to submit the attached report and comments relating to the proposed changes to the Provincial Policy Statement and the Provincial Growth Plan. Haldimand County has concerns in particular with the following:
1) The ability for farm parcels to sever 3 residential building lots. This will significantly alter the agricultural landscape and negatively impact on the lands available for agricultural production. There would be the loss of thousands of acres of valuable land in Haldimand County alone, and hundreds of thousands of acres of land across Ontario. It will bring a number of new and sensitive uses to the farming community. There would be an impact to livestock operations and their potential to expand or simply operate without complaints from the residential uses. Additionally, there will be increased pressures to municipal infrastructure to provide basic services to these rural areas.
2) Removal of the requirement for a MCR for Settlement Boundary expansions. This change could again see the potential for a number of developer driven settlement area expansions on agricultural lands. this could see the reduction of prime agricultural lands and the increase of inefficient urban sprawl. There could be substantial impacts on municipal servicing plans and land supply that exceeds need and population projections.
3) Removal of intensification targets and residential intensification. This could also result in additional lands being required to accommodate the projected population targets, thus putting pressure on urban boundary expansion, which in turn, could mean the loss of additional farm land.
4) Change in the definition of Employment Area. This change will have a limiting effect on municipalities and remove a municipalities ability to consider discretion when evaluation employment uses. This could result in incompatible land uses or loss of key lands for development.

Additional commentary and analysis is included within the attached report.