• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Friday, January 17: LSRCA to discuss loophole

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Jan 13th, 2014
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Wetlands or Profits?

UPDATED  From Jack Gibbons North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance

According to Fraser Nelson of Metrus Developments, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) should permit Metrus to build a 1,073 unit mobile home park (Maple Lake Estates) on the Paradise Beach-Island Grove provincially significant wetland (PSW) because the proposed development received planning approvals from the Town of Georgina in 1988 (see page 20 of the LRSCA board meeting agenda for Mr. Fraser’s submission).

The LSRCA board meets at 9 am Friday January 17 at 120 Bayview Parkway, Newmarket

Specifically, Metrus is asking the LSRCA to preserve the Maple Lake Estates Loophole so that it can destroy a PSW to increase its profits.

Mr. Nelson’s request is without merit for the following reasons:

• First, according to the Conservation Authorities Act, the LSRCA can only permit development on a wetland if ‘in its opinion, the control of flooding, erosion, dynamic beaches, pollution or the conservation of land will not be affected by the development.’ That is, the LSRCA does not have the legal authority to permit development on a PSW simply because a developer received planning approvals 25 years ago.

• Second, according to the Provincial Policy Statement, development is prohibited on PSWs in southern Ontario.

• Third, according to York Region’s new Official Plan, development is prohibited on wetlands and significant woodlands. In his submission to the LSRCA,

Mr. Nelson also noted that Metrus is willing to surrender its Maple Lake Estate development approvals in exchange for development approvals in another location. The North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance (NGFA) supports a development approvals swap agreement that is in the public interest. However, the NGFA does not agree with Mr. Nelson, that Metrus should be allowed to destroy a PSW if it is unable to negotiate a development approvals swap agreement with Mayor Grossi and the Town of Georgina. As the David Suzuki Foundation noted in its December 31, 2013 letter to the LSRCA: ‘When a wetland is designated as provincially significant, we know that this is a critically important natural area that deserves – indeed requires – full protection.’

On Friday, January 17th the LSRCA will be voting on Mr. Nelson’s request that the Maple Lake Estates Loophole be maintained to allow Metrus to destroy a 500 acre PSW. We need your help now to persuade the LSRCA to do its job, namely, protect the Paradise Beach-Island Grove PSW and the North Gwillimbury Forest.

 

Conservation Authority’s wetland protection standards are lowest in Greater Golden Horseshoe

From Jack Gibbons North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance Jan. 8 2014

According to a Jan. 3, 2014 report by our planning consultant, Anthony Usher, MCIP, RPP, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) is the only Conservation Authority in the Greater Golden Horseshoe that is willing to allow automatic approvals for developments on subdivision lots located in provincially significant wetlands (PSWs).

There are a total of 12 Conservation Authorities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Furthermore, according to a new legal opinion by Leo Longo, Senior Partner, Aird & Berlis LLP, the LSRCA’s subdivisions-in-wetlands policy (the Maple Lake Estates Loophole) is unlawful and its repeal is necessary to make the LSRCA’s Watershed Development Policies consistent with and conform to:

1.The Provincial Policy Statement, which prohibits development in PSWs in southern Ontario;

2.York Region’s new Official Plan, which prohibits development in wetlands and significant woodlands; and

3.The Conservation Authorities Act.

The LSRCA is holding a special meeting on Friday, January 17th at 9 a.m. to consider our request that it repeal its Maple Lake Estates Loophole which would appear to permit the construction of a 500 acre, 1,000 unit mobile home development in a provincially significant wetland.

 

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