[All] Region of Waterloo OMB Appeal

Sat Feb 2 01:01:26 EST 2013

Hello,

It is good to see the letters of support and the articles that are being written in support of the Region of Waterloo's appeal on the recent OMB ruling that struck down part of our Regional Official Plan (ROP), called into question several aspects the provincial Places to Grow Act, and that goes against so many SMART Growth principles.

I have attached below an excellent letter from Dr. Emil Frind a UW groundwater expert, that clearly articulates several strong arguments in favour of the Region and against the OMB ruling.  Thank you to Dr. Frind for speaking up and being so articulate!

I have also attached below a link and a copy of the most recent Record Article on the appeal.  Again, Terry Pender has done an excellent job of speaking to key experts across the province and outlining just what is at stake here:

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/879881--environmentalists-developers-watch-closely-as-the-region-goes-to-court-over-extent-of-sprawl

I believe that the Waterloo Chronicle is doing an article as well that should be out early next week.

Hopefully, we can continue to provide the Region with broad support from across the community and see this appeal be successful.  We need to do everything possible to ensure that this ruling reversed in favour of our Regional Official Plan and that we achieve the progressive, innovative, sustainable future that we as a community have decided that we want - not have distant courts forcing old-fashioned, unsustainable urban sprawl.

Kevin.

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Environmentalists, developers watch closely as the region goes to court over extent of sprawl
WATERLOO REGION — Environmentalists are watching closely as the Region of Waterloo goes to court to defend its vision of a more urban, walkable and transit-supported landscape from developers who want to build more car-dependent suburbs.

A recent decision handed down by a provincial tribunal sided with the developers, opening up 1,053 hectares (2,593 acres) of land for new housing between now and 2031. The region wanted to keep that expansion down to 85 hectares (197 acres).

The region announced earlier this week it will ask the Divisional Court to overturn that ruling. At the same time it will ask the tribunal — the Ontario Municipal Board — for a rehearing.

Erin Shapero is with Environmental Defence — the Toronto group links environmental issues with peoples’ homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods. She said the Region of Waterloo is on the cutting edge when it comes to policies to slow the pace of urban sprawl.

The region’s official plan calls for at least 45 per cent of new development to occur within designated urban areas. The Places to Grow Act of 2006, which aims to slow urban sprawl across the Greater Golden Horseshoe area, calls for 40 per cent of new development to occur in those designated growth areas.

Shapero said what’s so alarming is that the municipal board ruled that the intensification targets in the legislation do not have to be achieved by a certain date as long as a municipality has a plan in place.

“I think the decision that has been made is a dangerous one and it has serious implications for the province’s Places to Grow Act, its density targets and timelines,” Shapero said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

“I think the Region of Waterloo’s plan is one of the most proactive in the province to deal with this issue,” Shapero said. “To have a ruling like this that basically strikes that down is pretty shocking.”

Shapero said environmentalists and urban planners across the Greater Golden Horseshoe area — which stretches from the western edge of Lake Ontario inland to Guelph, Kitchener and Brantford — are watching.

“We are very pleased to see that the region is taking a stand to protect the plan,” Shapiro said of the region’s move to the courts.

The Region of Waterloo is planning for a future that includes high-density, mixed-use and walkable neighbourhoods along a central transit corridor that includes a light rail train and rapid buses. The intensification targets are a key piece of that plan.

The municipal board ruling could change that significantly, David Donnelly, a lawyer representing the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance, said.

“It puts Waterloo Region’s future growth in much more of an unknown context,” Donnelly said.

It is rare for someone to go to court in an effort to overturn a municipal board ruling.

“It’s considerably rarer that a municipality would appeal, which gives you a pretty strong indication that these are pretty high stakes and that the region is deeply concerned,” Donnelly said.

Opening up that much land for new development will increase costs to taxpayers who must fund the maintenance and replacement of infrastructure to service the new suburbs.

“The decision sets the stage for this uncontrolled growth and uncontrolled costs,” Donnelly said.

Paul Britton, a principal with MHBC Planning Ltd., said there is no doubt the region will be growing and the newcomers must be accommodated.

Britton represented some of the most active developers in this region at the municipal board hearing. His firm provided detailed evidence and analysis of past trends that led to the decision to open up more land for development.

“I think what’s being missed in the coverage to this point is, make no mistake, the region is planning for a significant expansion,” Britton said. “It’s just a question of when that expansion is to occur.”

Britton said the key questions are how much expansion occurs and where it occurs.

“The region is, I can’t emphasize this enough, is making provision for expansion to the green field area,” Britton said, referring to the region’s undeveloped land.

The board ruling deals with what’s called the land budget. The land budget determines by how much the built-up area will expand by 2031. The next phase of the municipal board hearing will focus on the countryside line, which will determine where that expansion occurs.

The land budget and countryside line are both part of the Region of Waterloo’s new official plan that was adopted in 2010. In January 2011, several developers took the region to the municipal board to have parts of that plan struck down.

The region is the only municipality in Ontario to put in place a countryside line to contain all development. Developers do not like that line and will challenge that in the third phase of the board hearing that was to be held in the coming months.

But now that the land-budget issues are going to court, it’s not known when the countryside line will be tested at the municipal board.

“It could very well set back the determination of all the other matters for a fair period of time,” Britton said.

tpender at therecord.com
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