Growth an important issue facing Caledon
Mayor's Report
By Marolyn Morrison

In my previous columns over the past two weeks I have tried to set the stage for you as to how planning is done, long term, and how the growth numbers are allocated from the province to the region and then to the municipality.

I have dealt with the Official Plan up to 2021 with an approved growth population of 84,444 and with our growth after 2021 to a population of 108,000 in 2031. These growth numbers were discussed through public meetings and endorsed by council Aug. 1, 2006.

Now I would like to bring you up to speed on what is happening to cause such angst among our residents, business sector and the Chamber of Commerce.

We all know that Bolton grew too fast, which caused major problems with trying to keep up with infrastructure, such as recreation, schools, roads etc. That growth was largely developer driven. Some of them who bought land within the settlement boundaries of Bolton wanted to build immediately, with little or no care or concern for the community; or the impact on the community; or the social cost to the community; or the environmental cost to everyone.

The Town of Caledon should have had phasing policies for Bolton to protect it from Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decisions. Because the Town did not, we had no defence under planning principles to protect Bolton, and the OMB gave the developers a green light.

As your mayor, I vowed to ensure that I would do all I could to never let this happen again.

There have been some changes to the OMB's procedures and, as a result, in most cases a developer can no longer take a municipality to the OMB to have the settlement boundaries changed. Developers must have settlement boundaries changed by council and this is what we are now dealing with.

We have a developer who has come into the picture in the last few years, since the "white belt;" has bought up land and has lobbied councillors, the Chamber of Commerce and businesses to be included in an expansion of the Bolton settlement boundary. Theoretically, the expansion would be in South Albion, on the west side of Coleraine, a stone's throw from Bolton.

The developer joined the Chamber of Commerce and convinced the business community that we need more growth in order to have successful businesses. I can tell you that if the population of Bolton and surrounding area shopped locally and supported the business community then they would have plenty of business. We need everyone to shop locally!

Let me tell you folks, this developer is not the only one who has bought up land on the Peel Plain and wants to develop. That is the way some developers tend to operate. The quicker they can get return on their investment, the better their cash flow and the wealthier they become. But for us, the bottom line is what our community ends up looking like.

How can the municipality deal with the outfall? Bolton is a good example of this. We have been playing "catch up" for a number of years now because of the OMB decisions that took place previously.

Now to be fair, there are some developers who have bought up land along Mayfield Road and do not expect to develop for 25 to 30 years and have told us that.

I have to ask all of the residents of the Town of Caledon "Why do you live in Caledon?" I think it is because of its unique urban and rural appeal. Its small community feel, yet a stone's throw from the large city. People love the feel of Caledon with its tri-nodal approach; its community of communities with small villages and its vast agricultural land.

This vision has been supported by previous councils who had the foresight to help create something unique in Caledon and to make it the place that we wanted to live and raise our families. I would like thank the many residents who have gotten involved in the process of planning our community to help make it the wonderful place that it is today.

At the council meeting Nov. 6, a proposal by Solmar Developments will be discussed. You can be sure that there will be many delegations from proponents interested in seeing this proposal get a green light from council. What they are basically asking for is that the Town of Caledon open its population numbers and increase them for their proposed development, next to Bolton. My understanding is that they are looking for a total population of 27,000 people between Coleraine, Gore Rd, Healey and Mayfield Rd.

If you are interested in letting us know how you feel please call the clerk's office and become a delegation, or e-mail us and voice your opinion.

We are on target with respect to the approved population numbers. We are debt free as a municipality and the Town of Caledon should be planning its future through the residents and council, not by developers.

This is one of the most important issues facing Caledon. This will determine the future of Caledon and whether we will become another one of those municipalities that have rampant growth with no regard to environmental sustainability, fiscal sustainability or social impact.

Council looks forward to hearing from you.