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DEVELOPMENT
Collingwood and the Town of The Blue Mountains are experiencing explosive growth that can only increase. Development is setting a record pace—new subdivisions are popping up every year.
Growth is…good?
Many people development as a very good thing. A September, 2017 Simcoe.com article observes that Collingwood is coming off a record year for construction in 2016, with more than 863 building permits issued for total construction value of about $115 million. “Last year’s numbers were just crazy,” said chief building official Bill Plewes. “A really good year for us in construction value is somewhere around $55 million.”
We know that people come from the GTA to enjoy Collingwood. The question is, will it still be as enjoyable when it is much more like the GTA? Imagine subdivisions from downtown Collingwood to Blue Mountain. We’re not as far off as you might imagine.
There have been development pressures in the Blue Mountains watershed since the Petun Nation reigned supreme. The Hurons invaded. White settlers moved in. Industries such as farming and shipbuilding cropped up, then ski hills and an increase in vacation properties.
In Canada, there is a sense that land is virtually unlimited. In Ontario, development planning is governed by provincial laws, which frequently allow development at the expense of the environment. Our laws are not strong enough, partly because there is a deeply embedded governmental belief that growth is more important than anything else. In a jurisdiction where one agency—in our case the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry—is responsible for both the conservation and the exploitation of natural resources, it’s not difficult to guess which driver is going to win out.
The Official Plan disconnect
Like many other municipalities, Collingwood and the Town of The Blue Mountains face a conundrum. On one hand, they have incredible natural heritage features that attracts new residents and tourists alike. On the other, they have Official Plans and zoning bylaws to help them plan for new development. The Official Plans reflect provincial policy and cannot go beyond provincial regulation and direction. This creates an atmosphere in which development is enabled with inadequate restrictions.
For example, you cannot build in the Provincially Significant Silver Creek Wetland, but you can build up to it based on not doing it any harm. This is very subjective. The current 300-unit development proposal for Consulate East would be surrounded by the Silver Creek Wetland. The plan was allowed based on not doing any harm. You almost have to prove that there is going to be harm in order to prevent it. The onus is on those opposed, like the Blue Mountains Watershed Trust, to prove that a development will do harm. That’s a difficult thing to do before the development exists.
Like the province, our local town planning departments view development as inherently good. Our Official Plans reflect this. For decades, local planning departments’ function has been to help developers do what they do best: develop undeveloped land. They are far less concerned with where building is occurring than they are in making sure that building is environmentally sustainable.
As a result, building takes place pretty much everywhere except on the few Provincially Significant lands. When developers are permitted to build in and around sensitive areas like watercourses, wetlands and the forests that surround them, those areas are negatively impacted. Natural wildlife corridors disappear. Wetlands are drained or polluted. Biodiversity vanishes.
Our Official Plans contain insufficient safeguards to protect the natural heritage that forms part of the intrinsic value of Collingwood and the Blue Mountains area. For example, new construction must be set back 30 metres from a watercourse. That is better than nothing at all, but building to within 30 metres all along a watercourse that is currently cloaked in mature forest for a quarter mile on either side all but obliterates wildlife habitat and corridors. What was once a wild, natural place is no longer. Are we destroying what makes this place of ours so special?
Official Plan exceptions
Legal non-conformance is developer language for obtaining an exception to the Official Plan. Exceptions should not be allowed in environmentally protected (EP) lands. Developers should not be allowed to build or expand within them. Yet Official Plans allow it to happen all the time. Legal non-conformance is currently the case with the following proposed developments:
- Consulate East
- Consulate West
- 70 & 80 Madeleine Drive
- Huntingwood Trails
- Castle Glen
- Parkbridge development (in Craigleith)
- Meridian Development (near the Alphorn)
Downtown intensification is good
Intensification means increasing the population density in an urban area. The theory is that if you can fit more dwellings, businesses and people into a smaller area, you can avoid spreading them out in more sensitive areas.
We couldn’t agree more: this kind of intensification is good. There are a number of new multi-story buildings, as well as new streets full of houses in the works for central Collingwood and we are all for them. However, developers want to play the intensification card everywhere.
The developers of the abovementioned Consulate East development, for example—which the Blue Mountain Watershed Trust has been fighting for several years—have made an application to the Town of Collingwood to increase housing densities for the proposed development. To our way of thinking, the development should not take place at all. But if it does, intensification will have an even more deleterious effect on the adjacent wetland. More people, more cars, more paved spaces, more storm water runoff, more noise pollution.
Expanding aggregate operations is…good?
The Niagara Escarpment up above Collingwood and the Town of Blue Mountains is also facing increasing development pressures. Despite being a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, the Niagara Escarpment has long been a major source of limestone gravel for the aggregate industry. Quarries dot its length. Many are small, some are large.
Our current aggregates focus—one of many possible—is a case that is currently before the Environment Land Tribunals of Ontario and involves a mega quarry being developed at the intersection of County Roads 91 and 31 west of Duntroon. ‘Quarry Corners’ is the location of a MAQ Aggregates quarry, two Walker quarries and likely the home of a new Osprey quarry. This intersection is at the highest point in southern Ontario and is the source of groundwater for four major area rivers.
Quarrying affects surface and groundwater. Gravel trucks are the largest and heaviest trucks on the road, with significant transportation infrastructure and safety impacts. We believe there are better places for mega quarries.
The Town of Clearview has agreed to close County Road 91 to allow for quarry expansion. To handle the traffic that formerly used County Road 91, including gravel trucks, we are facing an expansion of Sideroad 26/27. This would take place on the most sensitive environmentally protected lands in the Niagara Escarpment, in the midst of a wetland and on a road so steep that it was never designed to be used in the winter.
What are we doing about all of this?
The Blue Mountain Watershed Trust was formed when a golf course development threatened to obliterate the Provincially Significant Silver Creek Wetland. We won that battle and we have won many more since. Unfortunately, we find that we are spending more and more time fighting development, at the expense of environmental education and habitat restoration.
We engage three levels of government in our battles: municipal, provincial and federal. We insist on being included in discussions with the Towns and developers regarding questionable developments. We work with developers to obtain concessions that better preserve natural places. We deal directly with our Planning Departments. They know us very well. We occasionally find it in our budget to hire the experts and lawyers we need to fight a really important battle.
What future development look like in our area?
To date, development has encroached on sensitive wetlands and watercourses. The Watershed Trust deals with local applications by putting a public voice forward to protect ecology and hold the planning departments and towns accountable for conserving sensitive natural features.
Once we use up the areas that are mildly intrusive, development will push into more sensitive areas. Since Collingwood was designated a ‘settlement area’ in Ontario’s Places to Grow Act, the province has in effect decided population targets for our area in a very arbitrary way. It makes very little sense, other than that it supports the ideological pressure of growth: growth solves all problems.
The short answer? The future of our area, from a development perspective, looks grim.
What can you do?
HOT ISSUE: Clearview sells County Road 91 to gravel pit, proposes to turn 26/27 – a summer road with a 14% grade – into a year-round thoroughfare.
Read the full story…
The Blue Mountain Watershed Trust needs three things from area residents: membership, help, and funding. Join us, get involved with us, and help us raise funds. When our numbers swell, we have a bigger voice. When talented people get involved, we can do more. When we have more money, we can hire the experts we need to have a greater impact.
Do you want to have a say in the future shape of Collingwood and the Blue Mountains? Please let us know, email to info@bluemountainwatershedtrust.ca with ‘Development pressures help’ in the subject line.