The proposed growth plan…

The proposed growth plan changes put our farmland, forests and watersheds at risk.
We want livable communities, not more urban sprawl.
There is more than enough land to meet housing needs to 2031 and beyond.
The proposed changes will discourage compact, walkable, transit friendly, sustainable communities and will encourage sprawling developments that eat up irreplaceable farmland and natural areas. It will not provide affordable housing and the types of housing we need.
We are concerned that instead of encouraging a mix of housing and jobs in our cities, supported by better public transportation, the proposed changes will increase property taxes and traffic congestion and threaten the prosperity of the province.
To make our cities more livable, keep our farmland and natural areas protected and limit sprawl, the Ontario government should:

1) Hold the line on settlement boundary expansions. We can't afford to lose more precious farmland.
2) Growth needs to pay its way, extending expensive infrastructure into farmland for low density housing moves us backward. Low density sprawl costs us all in higher taxes, more traffic congestion, longer commutes and impacts our health (traffic related air pollution)
3) Transit needs density and density needs transit, support the billions in transit funding by supporting compact communities, rental housing and employment uses near transit stations
4) To protect farmland and clean water, keep the intensification and density targets and allow municipalities to go beyond provincial targets.

For almost 40 years, successive Ontario governments have been encouraging less urban sprawl, more compact urban growth and moving toward greater public transit capacity. Please keep this going forward, don’t go back to a congested, sprawl model of development. We need to move to more sustainable living communities and urban sprawl with dependencies on cars is not the direction we should go in.
Let’s do this right and make Ontario a leader for other provinces.