The Pembina Institute welcomes today's announcement by the Government of Ontario of legislation and a detailed plan to establish a permanent greenbelt in the golden horseshoe region. The Pembina Institute believes that the legislation and plan are important steps towards the reform of the land-use planning process in Ontario to promote more sustainable urban development patterns in the golden horseshoe region.
"Today's announcement of the greenbelt legislation and plan are significant developments in the protection of prime agricultural and natural heritage lands in the region," said Dr.Mark Winfield, Director of the Pembina Institute's Environmental Governance Program. At the same time, the Institute cautioned that the greenbelt plan needs to be complemented with other measures to contain sprawl and promote more sustainable urban development patterns.
Dr. Winfield noted that "it is essential that the greenbelt be supported with additional measures, including the completion of the government's initiatives to establish an overall growth management plan for the region, and the reform provincial planning policy and legislation to curb urban sprawl," adding that "The greenbelt plan, if left as a stand-alone initiative, risks prompting 'leapfrog' low-density urban development immediately beyond the greenbelt boundary. Such development patterns would defeat the underlying purposes of the greenbelt initiative of containing urban sprawl in the region."
Regarding concerns that the greenbelt initiative would lead to a shortage of lands for housing development the region, the Pembina Institute notes that the Neptis Foundation completed an extensive analysis of the extent of lands already zoned for urban development in the region in 2002. The foundation concluded that: "In most municipalities, land already designated as urban in official plans (much of which is currently undeveloped) will be sufficient for urban development until 2021, and in some municipalities until 2031. The region has enough urban additional urban land for many more years of urban expansion — if it chooses to continue current development patterns and consumption of non-urban land."
"In other words, even taking into account the lands included in the greenbelt, and protected through previous initiatives such as the Oak Ridges Moraine Plan, there is sufficient land available for development to accommodate projected population growth in the region for many years, even at sprawl level densities" concluded Dr.Winfield.
Contact information:
Mark Winfield, Ph.D, Director, Environmental Governance
Tel: (416) 978-5656
Cell: 416-434-8130
markw@pembina.org