Senior planner’s damning comments on county growth plan

The province’s plan for growth in Simcoe County places urbanization in the worst possible areas – Bradford, Alliston and the Highway 400 corridor, with dire consequences for Lake Simcoe and the Nottawasaga basiin. That’s the conclusion articulated by Ontario’s senior planner, Victor Doyle, whose comments on the “Simcoe Area: A Strategic Vision for Growth” report were the subject of a December 12 article in the Toronto Star.
We have obtained a copy of Doyle’s memo. He notes that there’s no need for urbanization in South Simcoe, as there are more than sufficient approved residential and employment lands in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. In addition, Simcoe County already has more than enough approved land to accommodate 25 years of growth plus 100,000 people more than its growth plan forecast.
“The vision for growth should be a continuation of the existing one of a agricultural/rural/recreational/tourism landscape and economy rather than a vision of major urbanization akin to the GTAH,” Doyle writes.
Simcoe County residents concerned about waste should be concerned about ill-advised urbanization that will place pressure on all aspects of municipal infrastructure, including waste disposal.
The conclusion is inescapable: that present growth plans are driven by which developers own what land, not by what’s best for the people, the environment and the economy. Please read Victor Doyle’s comments on Simcoe County Growth and email his report to your municipal councillors, along with your own take on the issue. As Doyle says, we are at a critical juncture in land-use planning in Ontario – at the brink of allowing developers to leapfrog the Greenbelt and open up a new frontier of major urbanization.
The Toronto Star article
The province’s plan: Simcoe Area: A Strategic Vision for Growth