CityPlaceN1
Senior Member
Grandfathered subdivisions and proposals for four golf courses in the development pipeline
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/308581
Mar 02, 2008 04:30 AM
PHINJO GOMBU
STAFF REPORTER
The rolling hills of the Oak Ridges Moraine on which Deanna Ramsay's family farm sits include a soaring cell phone tower and a small, four-hectare woodlot of original Carolinian forest filled with sugar maple, white ash, pine and beech trees.
The farm has seen only three owners since it was first granted to settlers by the Crown in 1815. Today it is home to tenant farmers who grow hay and soya beans while the meadow forms an idyllic range for Ramsay's seven horses.
But more than six years after the province ended an environmental war by passing legislation to protect the moraine, the snow-swept vista has become the latest hotspot for continuing skirmishes between developers, residents and town councils.
At issue is one of several moraine projects that were in the pipeline when the province's Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan came into effect in 2001 and are only now seeking approval. Other projects, which were "grandfathered" when the plan was passed, are now seeking final approvals.
Lebovic Homes wants to build an 18-hole golf course and 75-unit condominium complex on either side of Leslie St. north of Bloomington Rd. – just south of where Ramsay lives.
In neighbouring Whitchurch-Stouffville, councillors and residents are worried about a grandfathered 40-hectare subdivision proposal they fear could destroy a wetland considered "significant" by the province.
"The general public believes the moraine has been saved ... We know that's not quite true," says Aurora Mayor Phyllis Morris, whose council decides Tuesday whether to support residents like Ramsay who are fighting the golf-condo complex.
Morris complains that no one is keeping track of these ongoing developments and their cumulative impact.
Richard Stromberg, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, confirmed the province does not track or collect information about development proposals on the moraine. He suggested the Star contact individual municipalities in the GTA to find how many were out there.
Nascent proposals such as the Aurora golf course – one of four the Star found were currently on the books on moraine lands in places such as King and Pickering – are headaches for local councils and planners, and an outrage to many residents and environmentalists, who wonder why they're being considered at all.
"We are at the stage where a lot of these applications have started to come forward or have already, since the moraine act passed, and are grandfathered in," Morris says.
Josh Garfinkel of Earthroots, a Toronto-based environmental group, is concerned about the effect projects like the golf course could have on the water balance of the moraine's aquifers.
"Approving a project of this type undermines the Liberal government's promise to keep the moraine protected," says Garfinkel. "There are also the environmental problems pertaining to the impacts of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that are used to maintain the majority of golf courses. These chemicals have been shown to contaminate groundwater."
Ramsay and other residents like James McCutcheon echo Garfinkel's fears, saying the first reaction to the golf course from residents has always been: "Oh my God, the water."
Many homes in Aurora use well water drawn from the deep aquifers the town sits on. They say the municipality is already suffering shortages and faces the prospect of shipping water from Lake Ontario. Why, they ask, does a municipality that already has numerous golf courses – one is just north of Ramsay's farm – need another one? "The town should not permit this development. It's not justified, it's not needed, it flies in the face of all good planning and the preservation of the Oak Ridges Moraine and it sets a dreadful precedent," adds McCutcheon.
The Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan, passed in 2001, created protections for an environmentally sensitive stretch of land arcing above Toronto, from which all of the area's watersheds as well as those going north to Lake Simcoe originate.
It forms a key part of the province's protected Greenbelt, which came into being in 2005 and stretches around the Golden Horseshoe.
Most of the development proposals that have come forward recently, or are still to come, will be considered in one of two ways:
If approved before the moraine was protected, they will be grandfathered in under the old legislation. They still, however, could face final scrutiny before the Ontario Municipal Board.
Otherwise, they may fall under transitional legislation that applies standards somewhere between the old and new rules.
Aurora has had at least 25 development proposals, some involving hundreds of homes, that involve development on the moraine and involve both kinds of proposals. Many have been approved but at least 10 are pending, although the Lebovic golf course is the only one proposed outside the so-called "settlement boundary."
There have been two such battles in Uxbridge in recent years. One involved a 37-hectare industrial plot. The other, a proposal for a golf course and 750 homes, was scaled back at the OMB to 125 homes.
Rod Northey, an environmental lawyer acting for four Aurora families opposed to the condo-golf complex, says the proposed Westhill course south of Ramsay's farm will adversely affect the aquifer and adjoining woodlots and wetlands.
He points to a slew of courses that already ring the Westhill site, including the Magna, Bloomington, Westview and Beacon Hill golf courses. He says the individual and cumulative impact will damage the aquifer because much more water is being drawn out than can be recharged through rainfall.
He also questions the Lebovic Homes plan to use surface runoff collected in large storm water ponds, saying it will divert water from nearby wetlands. Those lands, he says, fall within the so-called "area of influence" – a technical term used to describe the impact of development on natural heritage areas on the moraine.
"The main reason for the protection of the moraine is concern for ground water," Northey says of the need to protect the area's hydrological and ecological integrity. "The problem with this development is that it needs water in large measure to feed the golf course and the condos."
Lebovic Homes planner Glenn Easton says any water drawn from the aquifer will be taken only with a permit issued by the environment ministry and will meet municipal standards.
"Our experts have to demonstrate that we can proceed with this development without having detrimental or adverse impacts."
Easton says he's confident, because the town's consultants are in general agreement with his own that the amount of water being taken out and collected in the ponds will not affect the aquifer or wetlands.
Farther east in Whitchurch-Stoufville, the battle against two subdivisions, totalling about 77 homes on one-acre lots, is being fought differently because it involves a grandfathered application.
Unlike the Aurora proposal, the subdivision plan doesn't have to meet any of the criteria of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan because it was approved long before the act came into being.
As one planner said, it means such development could occur based on old environmental standards that are much less stringent than today's.
In this case, the two subdivisions were first approved 20 years ago, but nothing was done until a new developer bought the lands from the original landowner about five or six years ago.
Andrew McNeely, deputy director of planning for Whitchurch-Stouffville, says it's a concern because the wetland on which the houses would be built includes tributaries that discharge water in Duffins Creek and the Rouge River watersheds.
It also connects to a larger wetland in Durham Region, he says, and occupies almost 25 per cent of the proposed development.
Because the provisions of the moraine plan don't apply, town council has had to resort to its planning act powers to get the developer to conduct various environmental impact studies, which will be ready in the coming months.
"We are using the planning act to make sure that decisions made today reflect the best management practices available to us," says McNeely.
"If changes are needed to the earlier draft plan, those recommendations will be made to council."
Morris says the Aurora council hasn't decided yet whether to side with residents, but won't be rushed into a decision.
"Once the moraine is gone, it's gone," she says.
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/308581
Mar 02, 2008 04:30 AM
PHINJO GOMBU
STAFF REPORTER
The rolling hills of the Oak Ridges Moraine on which Deanna Ramsay's family farm sits include a soaring cell phone tower and a small, four-hectare woodlot of original Carolinian forest filled with sugar maple, white ash, pine and beech trees.
The farm has seen only three owners since it was first granted to settlers by the Crown in 1815. Today it is home to tenant farmers who grow hay and soya beans while the meadow forms an idyllic range for Ramsay's seven horses.
But more than six years after the province ended an environmental war by passing legislation to protect the moraine, the snow-swept vista has become the latest hotspot for continuing skirmishes between developers, residents and town councils.
At issue is one of several moraine projects that were in the pipeline when the province's Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan came into effect in 2001 and are only now seeking approval. Other projects, which were "grandfathered" when the plan was passed, are now seeking final approvals.
Lebovic Homes wants to build an 18-hole golf course and 75-unit condominium complex on either side of Leslie St. north of Bloomington Rd. – just south of where Ramsay lives.
In neighbouring Whitchurch-Stouffville, councillors and residents are worried about a grandfathered 40-hectare subdivision proposal they fear could destroy a wetland considered "significant" by the province.
"The general public believes the moraine has been saved ... We know that's not quite true," says Aurora Mayor Phyllis Morris, whose council decides Tuesday whether to support residents like Ramsay who are fighting the golf-condo complex.
Morris complains that no one is keeping track of these ongoing developments and their cumulative impact.
Richard Stromberg, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, confirmed the province does not track or collect information about development proposals on the moraine. He suggested the Star contact individual municipalities in the GTA to find how many were out there.
Nascent proposals such as the Aurora golf course – one of four the Star found were currently on the books on moraine lands in places such as King and Pickering – are headaches for local councils and planners, and an outrage to many residents and environmentalists, who wonder why they're being considered at all.
"We are at the stage where a lot of these applications have started to come forward or have already, since the moraine act passed, and are grandfathered in," Morris says.
Josh Garfinkel of Earthroots, a Toronto-based environmental group, is concerned about the effect projects like the golf course could have on the water balance of the moraine's aquifers.
"Approving a project of this type undermines the Liberal government's promise to keep the moraine protected," says Garfinkel. "There are also the environmental problems pertaining to the impacts of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that are used to maintain the majority of golf courses. These chemicals have been shown to contaminate groundwater."
Ramsay and other residents like James McCutcheon echo Garfinkel's fears, saying the first reaction to the golf course from residents has always been: "Oh my God, the water."
Many homes in Aurora use well water drawn from the deep aquifers the town sits on. They say the municipality is already suffering shortages and faces the prospect of shipping water from Lake Ontario. Why, they ask, does a municipality that already has numerous golf courses – one is just north of Ramsay's farm – need another one? "The town should not permit this development. It's not justified, it's not needed, it flies in the face of all good planning and the preservation of the Oak Ridges Moraine and it sets a dreadful precedent," adds McCutcheon.
The Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan, passed in 2001, created protections for an environmentally sensitive stretch of land arcing above Toronto, from which all of the area's watersheds as well as those going north to Lake Simcoe originate.
It forms a key part of the province's protected Greenbelt, which came into being in 2005 and stretches around the Golden Horseshoe.
Most of the development proposals that have come forward recently, or are still to come, will be considered in one of two ways:
If approved before the moraine was protected, they will be grandfathered in under the old legislation. They still, however, could face final scrutiny before the Ontario Municipal Board.
Otherwise, they may fall under transitional legislation that applies standards somewhere between the old and new rules.
Aurora has had at least 25 development proposals, some involving hundreds of homes, that involve development on the moraine and involve both kinds of proposals. Many have been approved but at least 10 are pending, although the Lebovic golf course is the only one proposed outside the so-called "settlement boundary."
There have been two such battles in Uxbridge in recent years. One involved a 37-hectare industrial plot. The other, a proposal for a golf course and 750 homes, was scaled back at the OMB to 125 homes.
Rod Northey, an environmental lawyer acting for four Aurora families opposed to the condo-golf complex, says the proposed Westhill course south of Ramsay's farm will adversely affect the aquifer and adjoining woodlots and wetlands.
He points to a slew of courses that already ring the Westhill site, including the Magna, Bloomington, Westview and Beacon Hill golf courses. He says the individual and cumulative impact will damage the aquifer because much more water is being drawn out than can be recharged through rainfall.
He also questions the Lebovic Homes plan to use surface runoff collected in large storm water ponds, saying it will divert water from nearby wetlands. Those lands, he says, fall within the so-called "area of influence" – a technical term used to describe the impact of development on natural heritage areas on the moraine.
"The main reason for the protection of the moraine is concern for ground water," Northey says of the need to protect the area's hydrological and ecological integrity. "The problem with this development is that it needs water in large measure to feed the golf course and the condos."
Lebovic Homes planner Glenn Easton says any water drawn from the aquifer will be taken only with a permit issued by the environment ministry and will meet municipal standards.
"Our experts have to demonstrate that we can proceed with this development without having detrimental or adverse impacts."
Easton says he's confident, because the town's consultants are in general agreement with his own that the amount of water being taken out and collected in the ponds will not affect the aquifer or wetlands.
Farther east in Whitchurch-Stoufville, the battle against two subdivisions, totalling about 77 homes on one-acre lots, is being fought differently because it involves a grandfathered application.
Unlike the Aurora proposal, the subdivision plan doesn't have to meet any of the criteria of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan because it was approved long before the act came into being.
As one planner said, it means such development could occur based on old environmental standards that are much less stringent than today's.
In this case, the two subdivisions were first approved 20 years ago, but nothing was done until a new developer bought the lands from the original landowner about five or six years ago.
Andrew McNeely, deputy director of planning for Whitchurch-Stouffville, says it's a concern because the wetland on which the houses would be built includes tributaries that discharge water in Duffins Creek and the Rouge River watersheds.
It also connects to a larger wetland in Durham Region, he says, and occupies almost 25 per cent of the proposed development.
Because the provisions of the moraine plan don't apply, town council has had to resort to its planning act powers to get the developer to conduct various environmental impact studies, which will be ready in the coming months.
"We are using the planning act to make sure that decisions made today reflect the best management practices available to us," says McNeely.
"If changes are needed to the earlier draft plan, those recommendations will be made to council."
Morris says the Aurora council hasn't decided yet whether to side with residents, but won't be rushed into a decision.
"Once the moraine is gone, it's gone," she says.
