Growth in Caledon to 2031
By Richard Whitehead Regional Councillor

Caledon council is engaged in a review of its Official Plan, as required by provincial policy, to a new target year of 2031. Lately, the focus of attention has been on future urban growth area in south Caledon.

I have, perhaps, the unique advantage of having been on council when we conducted similar reviews in 1970s, the 1990s and now.

Consistently, we have concentrated on issues of continued urbanization, economic development, our rural countryside, the environment, transportation and other infrastructure, and agriculture and resource management.

As the GTA has continued to grow and evolve, Caledon has taken on more population and economic development. As the greenbelt, farmland, and environmentally sensitive areas in the GTA have diminished, Caledon's green space has become more important to protect and preserve. As traditional forms of agriculture have become less viable, this industry has continued to diversify. As vehicle traffic has increased, congestion on our roads has increased. As taxes increased and the demand on more services grew, so has the pressure to find better financial solutions and to build a stronger local economy.

The exercise has revolved around the issues of supply, demand and expectation. At every stage in this continuing 40-year debate, there have been demands to stop growth or, conversely, to accelerate growth; to protect our natural environment, or, to continue to exploit and extract our non-renewable resources; to protect agriculture, or, let it change into something else; to continue to build live-work communities or let big city growth swallow us up one concession at a time.

The exercise is, and always has been, to sort through the many contradictions and find the best solution and plan for a predetermined point in time that is consistent with evolving provincial policy. Now we are working at the period up to 2031.

During the last few years, the Province of Ontario has exercised increasing control over Caledon's future. Through their greenbelt policies and their "Places To Grow" policy initiatives, Queen's Park has now essentially partitioned Caledon into two distinct planning areas.

Rural Caledon, covering about 80% of our geography, and consisting of the Oak Ridges Moraine Area, the Niagara Escarpment, our own greenbelt, most of our villages and hamlets, and our ecologically sensitive rural area is being increasingly protected from major development or change.

Ontario's plans for south Caledon have changed dramatically. Previously, provincial policy had been to protect south Caledon as part of the agricultural reserve and to confine urban growth to relatively small areas around Bolton and in the Mayfield Road and Highway 10 corridor. Now, Ontario sees south Caledon as the major future urban development area for the GTA west.

Over time, perhaps in the next 40 to 50 years, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to live here as the urban envelope of Peel continues to expand. The province expects that there will be a steady growth in urbanization to displace our rural and agricultural lands in this vast area known as the "white belt." The "white belt" stretches all of the way from Bolton to the Niagara Escarpment in the west and from Mayfield Road to beyond King Street in the north. It covers more than 30,000 net buildable acres representing an area larger than that of current urban Brampton.

To facilitate this growth, the province has initiated studies to build a major transportation corridor across the "white belt" from west to east joining Guelph to the 427 and Highway 400; completion of an extension of the 427 Highway up to Mayfield Road; completion of the 410 to Highway 10; and plans for commuter rail connections in the area. The Region of Peel has developed a strategic servicing plan to bring Lake Ontario based services for water and sewers into this area on a demand basis.

The municipal governments of Caledon and Peel are expected to manage this growth and to determine the form and function of this urban change within strict provincial guidelines.

The province sets the growth policy and we set the program for implementation.

Over the past few months, I have reviewed the work of the previous council and have met with the staff of the province, the Region of Peel, and the Town of Caledon in an effort to understand the dynamics of the issues. Councillors have frequently discussed the issues and have met with, and heard from, many people and groups participating in the process including developers, the business community, citizens groups, environmentalists, farmers, and individuals with special or vested interests.

It has become evident to me that there is strong support for the policies and direction for our large rural and environmental protection areas, but a significant concern and uncertainty about the urbanizing and transition area in south Caledon. The question isn't so much how to maintain the "green" of Caledon but how to manage increasing levels of urbanization in a countrylike setting.

Council seems to be solidly supportive of the notion of resisting the endless expansion of the Brampton urban city system and to evolve our area into a series of small and self-contained but interdependent communities that will form a transition from to city to our countryside area.

The real issue is to plan for, and manage, the shear magnitude of the process. To achieve this goal, we will need to eventually create about 20 Bolton-like communities to fulfill the provinces aggressive growth demands. This is a very big picture.

I believe that the review of the current Official Plan and our need to conform to new provincial policies is still incomplete in two areas. First, the urban needs of the Bolton/South Albion area and the urban expansion plans for the Mayfield West are not being fully met and that both of these areas need further planning, better implementation strategies, and more effective timelines.

Second, we need to develop an overall strategy of how to implement the "Places to Grow" policies over the next 50 years.

Regarding Bolton and Mayfield West, the current strategy is to virtually stop growth in the Bolton area for the next fifteen years and to let Mayfield West grow rapidly over the next few years and then to stop until after 2021when both areas will begin to grow again.

Most of Caledon's capital to develop, or expand, existing infrastructure comes from development charges and our ability to maintain existing services levels at affordable levels of taxation depend on a steady and consistent growth in new assessment.

Growth is best handled when it occurs at a steady moderate rate rather than in "fits and starts" like we have experienced in Bolton's recent past. Steady growth allows us time to assimilate new populations and to provide for adequate infrastructure to meet existing and growing demand.

Does it really make sense to leave the Bolton area with its current deficit in certain service areas for the next 15 years? These needs include a new fire hall on the south hill, completion of the Bolton bypass north of King Street, improvement of new recreation facilities like improved soccer facilities and a twin arena, to list just a few.

Is it sensible to artificially prevent any growth in South Albion until after 2021 and not let at least some of it to proceed for the benefit of our local economy, infrastructure, and community needs?

Will the development of a new residential community in South Albion, using Humber Station Road and Mayfield Roads as the collector roads and being separated from the Bolton residential area by the railway, the employment lands and the Bolton bypass, really place such a negative burden on Bolton? South Albion will provide for its own schools, municipal facilities and recreation services, town centre, roads, amenities, and employment lands.

Does it really make sense to interrupt the development of Mayfield West rather than let it continue to its logical and planned completion? Why create another Bolton situation in Mayfield West? If we can solve the one, why would we create the other?

Bolton, Mayfield West and South Albion are merely the beginning of the longterm solution of urbanizing the "white belt" of provincial policy. We need to take charge of the process and make it into a "made in Caledon" solution. We need to stay ahead of the process and not let the province, the developers, or the GTA drive the process.

This is our town and these are our communities and we will do it our way, in our form, to serve our special needs while we endeavour to meet the requirements of provincial policy.

More on Growth

on the growth

issue inside the

Citizen. See the

mayor's column;

responses by Caledon

Countryside Alliance,

and residents.