Developer plays hardball – and Georgina council goes down without a fight

from Jack Gibbons North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance

Last night the DG Group (formerly Metrus) told Georgina Town Council that it is preparing to submit an application to the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) for permission to build a 1,073 unit mobile home park on the Paradise Beach-Island Grove provincially significant wetland in the North Gwillimbury Forest.

But, the developer added, if the provincial government gives it permission by May 2016 to build a subdivision on Class 1 farmlands located in the Greenbelt Protected Countryside adjacent to the Maple Lakes Estate property, it will not proceed with the mobile home park.

Councillor Dave Neeson was the only member of council who had the wisdom to say “no thank you” to this Trojan Horse offer. What Councillor Neeson grasps – and the rest of council apparently doesn’t – is that DG Group is simply trying to make the most of the gaping loophole left by the LSRCA when it decided to leave its old, illegal ‘subdivisions in a wetland’ policy in place until June 1st.

Instead of acting in the best interest of the forest and the people of Georgina by calling DG Group’s bluff on its application under the LSRCA’s illegal policy, council caved.  Instead of questioning whether DG Group is actually likely to get approval to stick more than a thousand mobile homes in a wetland even under the LSRCA’s indefensible old rules, council endorsed a recommendation to call on the province to give DG Group what it wants.  We’ll leave it to you to find the appropriate word to describe a decision like this, a decision taken under great duress.

We did not elect a new Mayor and Council to see developers continue to run roughshod over local interests.  DG Group’s preferred solution – endorsed by town staff, who still don’t seem to have caught up with the times or public sentiment – is inferior in every way to moving its development approvals to the Keswick urban area.  It violates the province’s Greenbelt policies, it would create more traffic on local roads, it is a terrible example of leapfrog development, and it flies in the face of the logic of locating development in urban development zones, where it belongs.

In response to council’s weak-kneed performance, we will continue to call on the LSRCA to put in place an open and transparent review process for DG Group’s application, including a substantial and meaningful opportunity for public input. In particular, we will be calling on Georgina’s LSRCA representatives, Mayor Margaret Quirk and Councillor Danny Wheeler, to demonstrate real leadership on this issue.

And if the LSRCA does indeed approve DG Group’s wetland-wrecking application, we will ask the Divisional Court for a judicial review to prevent the DG Group from proceeding with the MLE project, and we will ask the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to issue a zoning order to save these provincially significant wetlands.

The fight is far from over.

Please thank Dave Neeson

Please contact Councillor Dave Neeson and thank him for having the courage to stand up to DG Group. We need more courageous and public-spirited political leaders who will fight to save our wetlands and our prime agricultural lands. You can contact Dave at: dneeson@georgina.ca.