AlvinofDiaspar
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From the Globe:
Oakville, developers strike a deal on green space
Environmentalist-turned-mayor hails town's latest attempt to use land for housing as 'a comprehensive, balanced and sustainable plan'
JAMES RUSK
From Friday's Globe and Mail
August 17, 2007 at 3:48 AM EDT
After a political fight that lasted nearly 10 years, Oakville has reached an agreement with the development industry on a plan for the last big block of residential land in the town.
The plan, which covers 2,300 hectares in north Oakville, involves building housing for about 50,000 people, and would create jobs for about 25,000 in a transit-friendly, walkable community while preserving more than a quarter of the space as natural habitat.
Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, whose political career was launched when he joined the environmentalists who fought the town's first attempt to draw up a plan for the area, called the agreement a historic achievement.
"We have created a comprehensive, balanced and sustainable plan that will help create one of Canada's most green and livable communities," the mayor said in a statement.
David Stewart, president of Mattamy Development Corp., said that the developers negotiated with the town in good faith "and the result will be a community unlike any other in Ontario, a community containing a public open space system that is twice the size of Central Park in New York City."
The plan, which will cover an area from Dundas Street north to Highway 407 and from the Sixteen Mile Creek in the west to the Ninth Line in the east, will open the area to rapid development starting next year.
With council agreeing to this plan, the only significant area left open to development in Oakville is a 500-hectare block west of Sixteen Mile Creek zoned for industrial and commercial use, although a plan has not yet been approved for it.
Oakville has been wrestling with a plan for the development of the area north of Dundas Street since 1998, but environmentalists opposed its first proposal in a bid to stop all development in the area.
Their opposition culminated in what Mr. Burton said was a victory for the environment: an Ontario Municipal Board ruling that the natural heritage features of the area had to be preserved through an ecologically sound plan prepared by the province, the region and the town.
The developers have agreed to create 600 hectares of green space - mostly forests, wetlands and some open fields - linked by corridors such as ravines along which wildlife can travel, said Oakville's chief planner, Peter Cheatley.
He added that the plan also calls for a compact form of residential development in keeping with the province's plans for environmentally friendly urban growth, and for the donation of 64.5 hectares of public park space to the town.
The plan will have to be approved by the OMB in a hearing that starts Sept. 10.
The hearing was originally slated to last for as long as nine months and was estimated to cost as much as $13-million. But because an agreement has been reached that reduces the number of opponents to the development, the hearing will now be reduced to five weeks and cost less, Mr. Burton noted.
The first week will be taken up by a presentation of the details of plan, and in the other weeks, opponents will present their objections.
Mr. Cheatley said that there are only four objectors: landowners with a total of 52 hectares in the area. They have the right to call evidence and cross-examine witnesses. Groups, such as one representing local ratepayers, will make statements of concern about the plan.
One of the groups that might make such a statement is Oakvillegreen Conservation Association, which led the opposition to the first plan.
Oakvillegreen president Liz Benneian said that while the latest plan is better than the original proposal, the green space does not include some linkages that experts saw as necessary to the creation of an ecologically sound system.
"We have some concerns about it being a viable natural heritage system that preserves the ecological heritage of the area," and the group may raise those concerns at the OMB hearing, Ms. Benneian said.
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This is one of the most contentious planning issues in the 905, perhaps only after the Seaton plan. Gratifying to see it reach settlement - interestingly, the plan also resembles in some way the forementioned...
Addition info:
http://www.oakville.ca/bpo-nosp.htm
AoD
Oakville, developers strike a deal on green space
Environmentalist-turned-mayor hails town's latest attempt to use land for housing as 'a comprehensive, balanced and sustainable plan'
JAMES RUSK
From Friday's Globe and Mail
August 17, 2007 at 3:48 AM EDT
After a political fight that lasted nearly 10 years, Oakville has reached an agreement with the development industry on a plan for the last big block of residential land in the town.
The plan, which covers 2,300 hectares in north Oakville, involves building housing for about 50,000 people, and would create jobs for about 25,000 in a transit-friendly, walkable community while preserving more than a quarter of the space as natural habitat.
Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, whose political career was launched when he joined the environmentalists who fought the town's first attempt to draw up a plan for the area, called the agreement a historic achievement.
"We have created a comprehensive, balanced and sustainable plan that will help create one of Canada's most green and livable communities," the mayor said in a statement.
David Stewart, president of Mattamy Development Corp., said that the developers negotiated with the town in good faith "and the result will be a community unlike any other in Ontario, a community containing a public open space system that is twice the size of Central Park in New York City."
The plan, which will cover an area from Dundas Street north to Highway 407 and from the Sixteen Mile Creek in the west to the Ninth Line in the east, will open the area to rapid development starting next year.
With council agreeing to this plan, the only significant area left open to development in Oakville is a 500-hectare block west of Sixteen Mile Creek zoned for industrial and commercial use, although a plan has not yet been approved for it.
Oakville has been wrestling with a plan for the development of the area north of Dundas Street since 1998, but environmentalists opposed its first proposal in a bid to stop all development in the area.
Their opposition culminated in what Mr. Burton said was a victory for the environment: an Ontario Municipal Board ruling that the natural heritage features of the area had to be preserved through an ecologically sound plan prepared by the province, the region and the town.
The developers have agreed to create 600 hectares of green space - mostly forests, wetlands and some open fields - linked by corridors such as ravines along which wildlife can travel, said Oakville's chief planner, Peter Cheatley.
He added that the plan also calls for a compact form of residential development in keeping with the province's plans for environmentally friendly urban growth, and for the donation of 64.5 hectares of public park space to the town.
The plan will have to be approved by the OMB in a hearing that starts Sept. 10.
The hearing was originally slated to last for as long as nine months and was estimated to cost as much as $13-million. But because an agreement has been reached that reduces the number of opponents to the development, the hearing will now be reduced to five weeks and cost less, Mr. Burton noted.
The first week will be taken up by a presentation of the details of plan, and in the other weeks, opponents will present their objections.
Mr. Cheatley said that there are only four objectors: landowners with a total of 52 hectares in the area. They have the right to call evidence and cross-examine witnesses. Groups, such as one representing local ratepayers, will make statements of concern about the plan.
One of the groups that might make such a statement is Oakvillegreen Conservation Association, which led the opposition to the first plan.
Oakvillegreen president Liz Benneian said that while the latest plan is better than the original proposal, the green space does not include some linkages that experts saw as necessary to the creation of an ecologically sound system.
"We have some concerns about it being a viable natural heritage system that preserves the ecological heritage of the area," and the group may raise those concerns at the OMB hearing, Ms. Benneian said.
_________________________________________________________________
This is one of the most contentious planning issues in the 905, perhaps only after the Seaton plan. Gratifying to see it reach settlement - interestingly, the plan also resembles in some way the forementioned...
Addition info:
http://www.oakville.ca/bpo-nosp.htm
AoD