News on North Oakville Development: OMB Gives Approval for Greenbelt
January 20th, 2008 Categories: Green Trends, Halton Real Estate, North Oakville Development, Oakville Town Planning & Development, Why Move to Oakville?
As an interested resident and local REALTOR, I attended some of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearings for the North Oakville Secondary Plan in October at Town Hall.
This week the OMB gave approval for the preservation of an extensive network of linked natural heritage corridors as the “first priority. This ruling means that 900 hectares, or more than one-third of the 3,400 hectares of developable land, will be preserved as green space.
The planned system of linked open spaces, woods and wildlife corridors, along water systems such as Bronte Creek and Sixteen Mile Creek and their tributaries, preserves an area 20 per cent bigger than New York’s Central Park, bigger also than Vancouver’s Stanley Park and almost double the size of Toronto’s High Park.
The OMB ruling marks the end of a decade-long battle by town planners and environmentalists who fought to ensure the proposed development would adhere to the planning principles of “new urbanism,” particularly in being more transit- and pedestrian-friendly.
The town has won a series of successive, hard-fought victories over developers who initially tried to fight the Natural Heritage System idea of planning at the OMB a few years ago and then abandoned the battle.
Most of the developers settled with the town in August, but a handful continued to fight, asserting their right to develop lands the plan had designated for green space.
Until now, the notion of “linked natural heritage” corridors has typically been an afterthought in planning GTA developments - or at least secondary to the goal of putting in as many housing units as possible.
The OMB ruling is expected to have ramifications across the GTA, especially in other high-profile developments in the works such as the provincially planned community for about 70,000 people on the Seaton Lands in north Pickering.
Some believe it may also play a significant role in how the province’s internationally lauded Places to Grow Act is implemented. The act is an attempt to contain urban sprawl by promoting intensification and growth in already built-up urban areas in the Golden Horseshoe.
Much of the information in this post came from a longer article in The Toronto Star entitled Hard Won Green Victory for Oakville, January 17, 2008.
Should you be interested, the Town of Oakville website contains full details of the proposed North Oakville Secondary Plan including maps.
Stay posted for upcoming article: The Oakville Buzz Interviews Planning Director, North Oakville, Town of Oakville
Related Posts:
Oakville Development North of Dundas: Whats Happening?
Do You Remember When We Ate The Fish in Lake Ontario: New Memorial in Bronte
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