Toward a Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt – City of Hamilton Comments

CITY WIDE IMPLICATIONS

CITY OF HAMILTON

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT Long Range Planning Division

Report to: Chairman and Members Submitted by: Lee Ann Coveyduck Planning and Economic General Manager Development Committee

Date: June 4, 2004 Prepared by: Paul Mason File: (905) 546-2424 Ext. 1213

SUBJECT: Toward a Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt – City of Hamilton Comments - Referred from Planning and Economic Development Committee on February 17, 2004 (City Wide) (PD04172)

RECOMMENDATION:

(a) That the Council of the City of Hamilton respond to the Discussion Paper of the Task Force on the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt as follows:

(i) Council supports Task Force recommendations respecting natural environment planning.

(ii) Council supports the direction of Task Force recommendations on Agricultural Protection, but requests the Province to complete improved mapping and resource evaluations for tender fruit and specialty crop lands in consultation with the City of Hamilton prior to implementation.

(iii) Council suggests Task Force recommendations respecting transportation and utilities be improved and recommends that multiple use infrastructure corridors be planned comprehensively within the Greenbelt area, not as single proponent initiatives. The focus of this planning must go beyond need and justification issues to emphasize enhancement of the Greenbelt environment through context sensitive design engineering and integrated environmental remediation.

(iv) Council suggests Task Force recommendations on mineral aggregate resource planning be improved. Greenbelt municipalities require the Ministry of Natural Resources to better manage Provincial aggregate resources through updated resource mapping which explicitly considers incompatible uses and establishes detailed context-appropriate extraction and rehabilitation objectives rather than uncoordinated, licence-specific solutions.

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(v) Council supports Task Force recommendations respecting culture, recreation and tourism development but expresses disappointment that funding, administrative and marketing improvements needed to properly implement the vision have not been addressed.

(vi) Council recommends the Greenbelt initiative be implemented through the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) and be reinforced with legislative reforms that require all relevant ministries and agencies to take actions consistent with the PPS and support local planning reforms.

(vii) Council recommends that the Province create and properly fund new financial vehicles that ensure a fair return is provided land owners on the costs of responsible land stewardship within the Greenbelt area.

(b) That the 'Provincial Regulations re: Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt and Impact on Development Proposed Outside the Urban Area' item, referred from the Planning and Economic Development Committee on February 17, 2004, be identified as completed and removed from the Planning and Economic Development Committee Outstanding Business List.

Lee Ann Coveyduck General Manager Planning and Development Department

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The Province of Ontario has embarked on a wide-ranging program of planning reform focused on the Golden Horseshoe. This report deals with the first in a series of policy and legislative changes which will emerge over the next few months. The Province intends to finalize its reform process by December 2004.

Legislation was tabled in December 2003 to create a permanent greenbelt ‘zone’ and established a Task Force to recommend appropriate policies to implement that concept. This report responds to the Task Force on a Discussion Paper that will be used as the basis for its final recommendations. Hamilton has a significant interest in this matter as it will likely have a major influence its GRIDS and Official Plan reform programs.

BACKGROUND:

PROVINCIAL STRATEGIES

This report deals only with the Greenbelt Discussion Paper. The Province will release other discussion documents outlining an urban ‘smart growth’ strategy for all of Central Ontario near the end of June. It is the Government’s intention to finalize both the

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Greenbelt and Smart Growth ‘plans’ by early fall. It will then move forward with the legislative changes and Cabinet approvals needed to implement these initiatives by December 2004.

Parallel to these Provincial ‘plan-making’ activities, further suggestions on reform of the Planning Act and Ontario Municipal Board Act have just been announced. In early June, Ministry of Municipal Affairs released the draft of the new Provincial Policy Statement. Staff will report further to Council on these reforms once we have an opportunity to examine their implications in detail. These Provincial initiatives set new ‘ground rules’ for Hamilton’s Official Plan and Zoning By-law reforms and may have bearing on Hamilton’s GRIDS and Official Plan reform work programs.

These initiatives are inter-connected. It would be preferable for Council to consider them as a single package. However, the Province’s program for release of information and deadlines for response do not allow a single municipal response. Staff will report further on individual components as they unfold to ensure Hamilton’s input is clearly expressed.

PROPOSED GREENBELT PROTECTION ACT

On December 16, 2003, the Province of Ontario (Ministry of Municipal Affairs) introduced Bill 27 – the proposed Greenbelt Protection Act. Its purpose is to develop a “greenbelt” surrounding the Golden Horseshoe urban area. The greenbelt is intended to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive land and to contain or manage urban growth. The green belt lands identified by the proposed Act include all rural lands in the Regions of Peel, Durham, York, Halton and Hamilton, a portion of the rural area designated as fruit belt/specialty crop by the Niagara Region Official Plan, plus all land outside these districts which fall within the Niagara Escarpment Plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine Plan. (See Appendix A)

The Province appointed a 13 member Task Force, chaired by Mayor McIssac of Burlington, to develop recommendations to the Minister of Municipal Affairs on how to “…effectively establish a permanent Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt.” The Task Force has issued a Discussion Paper titled Toward a Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt, on which comment is now requested. The Task Force held a series of public consultations for both targeted stakeholder groups and the general public, one of which was conducted in Hamilton on May 26th.

The Task Force Discussion Paper sets out a comprehensive vision for the green belt, reviews component issues and makes preliminary recommendations for implementing that vision under five interconnected themes:

• environmental protection; • agricultural protection including tender fruit and specialty crop lands; • transportation and infrastructure; • natural resources – primarily focused on mineral aggregates; and, • culture, tourism and recreation.

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Input is also being sought on the appropriate implementation system for a permanent greenbelt. The Discussion Paper does not contain a drawing or map that specifies precisely how and where the Greenbelt is to apply anywhere in the study area.

ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES:

SCOPE OF THE GREENBELT VISION

The Greenbelt Task Force has expressed a vision of the Greenbelt that focuses on the overall system of landscape planning and management. The ‘urban containment’ objectives and boundaries of the proposed Greenbelt are to be addressed by proposals in the upcoming Smart Growth Strategy. Staff agrees that the Task Force’s vision is comprehensive and appropriate in most respects. Within the context of the Planning Act, it provides greater clarity for municipalities to set priorities in their planning programs within this ‘zone’.

It is important to remember the Planning Act is only one of many pieces of legislation and the City is only one of many authorities which exert a profound influence on private and public land management in rural districts. Environmental management in Ontario is a multi-stakeholder process, where no single body holds pre-eminent control. However laudable the Task Force’s objectives, the prospects for the Greenbelt Protection Act to achieve comprehensive reform by impacting all the jurisdictions, existing legislation and policy which operates outside of the Planning Act is remote.

ISSUES

As noted above, the Task Force has articulated this vision through five (5) themes. This report will explain and respond to each.

1. Environmental Protection

The Greenbelt area contains significant natural heritage features including wetlands, rare and endangered plant and animal habitats, rivers and valleys connecting the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges moraine.

Proposed Policy Direction

The Task Force proposes a natural systems approach to environmental planning and protection which includes:

(a) A Provincially significant natural heritage system which will be identified for the Greenbelt where enhanced and consistent protective policies would apply to core natural features and the connections between them;

(b) An Open Space Network for the Greenbelt which will identify an interconnected system of public parks (i.e. Bronte Creek) and priority

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open spaces held by other parties (i.e. Conservation Authority lands); and,

(c) Systematic water resource management practices to protect improve or restore clean and abundant water supply and aquatic ecosystems (wetlands, streams, source protection, and sensitive headwaters).

No “land use” policies are proposed by the Task Force to achieve these objectives, rather a future plan will specifically identify and establish management policies for priority natural features. The report suggests mandatory municipal regulation through Tree Conservation and Site Alteration By-laws. It recommends a public land acquisition and private land stewardship strategy be combined within an overall parks and trails strategy in future.

Comments:

The Task Force’s recommendations on natural environment planning management are similar in scope and direction to those already implemented by the Oak Ridges Moraine Act. As Peel, York and Durham have experienced in this regard, many municipalities previously addressed most these policy directions through existing Environmentally Significant Area and Greenland policies set out in their Official Plans. The proposed priorities for key natural resources are easily supported in Hamilton because they reinforce directions the City is already pursuing through its existing Regional Official Plan (OP) and the Official Plan (OP) Reform program.

The process and costs for implementing the Task Force’s vision beyond municipal plans and regulatory initiatives is unclear. The Task Force has not identified new funding or legislative mechanisms to ensure that other actors who influence natural area management are co-ordinated. Nor does it explain how an expanded system of public land acquisition and private land stewardship will achieve different ‘on-the-ground’ performance. Their only recommendation is for a mandatory use of Municipal Tree Conservation and Site Alteration By-laws. Hamilton has these by-laws already and intends to improve them in the near future; however funding and staff resources for by-law enforcement remain an on-going challenge.

Recommendation: That Council support the Task Force recommendations respecting natural environment planning.

2. Agricultural Protection

The Discussion Paper emphasizes the need to more effectively protect prime agricultural lands and tender fruit/specialty crop lands within the Greenbelt to ensure a healthy agriculture sector. Near-urban agriculture faces continuing pressure from incompatible rural development, a conflict in urban/rural values over the productive use of resources, extensive lot fragmentation and land cost

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pressures from land speculation. Combined with today’s low commodity prices, these forces make near-urban agriculture difficult and economically unstable. The Task Force recognizes that new financial tools are needed to support the viability of Greenbelt agriculture. It has proposed a Province-wide sub-committee to address those matters. A Provincial announcement on this sub-committee is expected shortly. The Task Force’s recommendations on agricultural issues focus on land use matters as a result.

Proposed Policy Directions:

Prime Agricultural Lands

(a) Significantly increasing policy requirements for demonstrating the need and justification of all urban boundary expansions.

(b) Elimination of rural lot creation for non-farm residential infill use.

(c) More explicit direction and control for farm-related severances, (including retirement lots, farm splits, consolidations, etc.).

(d) More explicit direction for locating secondary agricultural uses in rural areas so as not to erode tender fruit and prime agricultural lands.

Tender Fruit/Grape Lands/Holland Marsh

(e) Restrict all settlement area boundary changes onto adjacent tender fruit and specialty crop lands.

(f) Restriction on the range of land uses and their location on properties within fruit belt and specialty crop areas to those absolutely necessary to support those farm uses.

Comments:

As part of the Official Plan reform program, a major study known as the Land Evaluation Area Review (LEAR) project is now underway with the active participation of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee. The intent of the LEAR project is to comprehensively update local planning policies for our ‘prime and specialty crop’ farm land.

The City’s current rural planning policies are quite antiquated in comparison to those of neighbouring jurisdictions. The majority of agricultural policy reforms proposed by the Task Force are in line with ‘best practices’ elsewhere and are already under consideration by the LEAR project. Provincial adoption of these directions would expedite completion of the LEAR. However, it is absolutely necessary for such reforms to be consistently implemented across the Greenbelt

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and in adjacent rural areas by their incorporation into the new Provincial Policy Statement.

The Discussion Paper’s proposals for tender fruit lands in the Greenbelt area are based on the Region of Niagara’s OP designations, not those in Hamilton. There is no explicit reference to specialty crop or tender fruit lands within the Hamilton boundary. The Task Force has recognized the need to review the technical basis for today’s fruit belt designations. It is important that this technical review be completed in consultation with the City prior to implementing a higher degree of protection for fruit belt lands proposed.

As part of the Stoney Creek Urban Boundary Expansion (SCUBE) report, several consultants were retained to assess the viability of agriculture in this area. It was concluded that the area’s natural productivity for tender fruit and specialty crops was marginal and its commercial viability severely impacted by widespread non- farm development. City Council, through the adoption of Regional Official Plan Amendment No 14 and Stoney Creek Official Plan Amendment No. 99 has indicated that the urban boundary in the lower Stoney Creek area should be expanded to accommodate urban uses and there is a need and justification for that expansion. The Province of Ontario appealed these Amendments. An Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing to decide the matter is pending.

As the status of the SCUBE lands for specialty crop agriculture is a major consideration in the Provincial appeal, it is important for them to provide scientific evidence that a viable “specialty crop” designation exists in Hamilton, before the Task Force’s proposal are implemented in the City.

Recommendation: That Council support the general direction of Task Force recommendations on Agricultural Protection, but not until the Province has completed improved mapping and resource evaluations for tender fruit and specialty crop lands in consultation with the City of Hamilton.

3. Transportation and Infrastructure

The proposed Greenbelt will form a ‘ring’ around the fastest growing urban area in Canada. It must deal explicitly with the need for transportation routes and utility sites to be created or expanded within that ‘ring’. The Task Force’s view is that transportation and utility route decisions must adapt to the Greenbelt vision, rather than drive that vision. This is likely a reaction to the experience with the Parkway Belt West, established by the Province in the late 1970s. Through most of its course in Halton, Peel and York Regions the Parkway Belt became little more than a utility corridor. The Task Force’s vision is for the new proposed greenbelt to be much larger in scale and not serve as an urban infrastructure corridor as its primary objective.

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Proposed Policy Directions:

(a) Maximize the capacity of existing infrastructure before creating or expanding infrastructure systems in the Greenbelt.

(b) Control urban growth through planning tools.

(c) Allow new transportation and utility infrastructure to be created or expanded only when a proven need exists and then consider creative approaches to facility design.

(d) Review environmental assessment processes to reinforce implementation of growth management and Greenbelt principles.

Comments:

The City of Hamilton’s experience with planning a new transportation route across the Niagara Escarpment is very instructive for our comment to the Task Force. That experience shows how difficult it is to reconcile broad landscape preservation ideals with the development of a specific infrastructure project by a single proponent. Ontario’s system for utility and transportation planning approval acts to ensure that such broad objectives are quickly polarized. The result is an unending conflict over the justification for an individual project. The environmental approval process tends to create a decision environment of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, no matter what the outcome.

In Europe, where Greenbelt-style planning is the norm rather than the exception, different approach is frequently taken. Transportation and utility corridors are planned for all modes of movement (including cycling) and linear transmission facilities so as to produce truly multi-use corridors. Infrastructure sites for waste management, telecommunications and power generation are physically linked to existing urban uses or districts as a first priority, not the last priority as they are in Canada. These essential facilities are often comprehensively designed for long term multiple use and engineering standards are adapted to suit the individual environmental and social environments in which the utility is located (i.e., context-sensitive design engineering).

The Task Force’s recommendations merely reinforce the polarization that exists in today’s infrastructure planning and approval system with its broad generalities. Today’s system of transportation and utility planning discourages multiple use solutions and the potential for infrastructure projects to contribute to environmental enhancement through compensation, rather than simplistic avoidance strategies.

The North-South Expressway project is making a significant investment in environmental remediation and open space compensation that should serve as a model for the Greenbelt as well. A comprehensive, multi-use corridor plan for the

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Greenbelt would allow for more creative solutions than the single proponent/project approaches of today. A successful plan would provide greater certainty for utility and transportation agencies and assurance to the public that critical environmental resources will be enhanced to the greatest extent possible within a permanent Greenbelt.

Recommendation: That the Council suggests Task Force recommendations respecting transportation and utilities be improved. Council recommends that multiple use transportation and utility corridors be planned comprehensively within the Greenbelt area, not as single proponent initiatives. The focus of this planning must be far broader than need and justification issues; it should emphasize enhancement of the Greenbelt environment through context sensitive design engineering and comprehensive environmental remediation.

4. Natural Resources

The Discussion Paper recognizes the term “natural resources” encompasses forestry, water and wildlife. However, the focus of the Task Force is on mineral aggregates (i.e. sand, gravel, sandstone) since it is considered the most significant non-renewable resource in the Greenbelt area.

Proposed Policy Directions:

(a) High potential mineral aggregate resource areas be included in the greenbelt and protected from incompatible use.

(b) A more rigorous approach to rehabilitation should apply in the Greenbelt that aggressively converts depleted pits and quarries into Greenbelt compatible uses.

(c) The Province should clarify the role and content of Provincial and Official Plan policies surrounding the consideration and approval of new aggregate licences.

(d) The Province review its licensing procedures to ensure the integrity of hydrogeolgical and ecological systems.

Comment:

The Greenbelt study area has been the major supplier of mineral aggregate resources for the Golden Horseshoe for many decades. That role will continue for decades to come, notwithstanding public controversy which typically surrounds creation, expansion and rehabilitation of pits and quarries. The Mineral Aggregates Act is the primary driver of these decisions, not the Planning Act. The Provincial Policy Statement issued under the Planning Act reinforces that priority. Unending debate exists over land use conflicts, operational impacts and rehabilitation practices for pits and quarries. However, the Task Force lacks

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the central mandate to resolve that debate. As a result, its recommendations deal with objectives for enhanced vigilance from existing policy and regulatory systems, not the reform of those systems.

The Provincial Policy Statement and mineral aggregate policies in today’s Official Plans rely on maps of aggregate resources produced many years ago by the Ministry of Natural Resources. These maps contain no consideration of incompatible uses or conflicting environmental priorities which exist within these resource districts. A similar situation has existed for prime agricultural land planning until comparatively recently. It is now being resolved through improved resource assessment and planning techniques such as Hamilton’s LEAR project. While the issues associated with mineral aggregate planning are certainly different, the principles are the same.

The aggregate industry, municipalities and people living within and adjacent to aggregate resource districts need a greater degree of predictability in mineral aggregate planning, extractive operation and rehabilitation decisions. The Town of Caledon is one of the few jurisdictions in Ontario that has tried to resolve this problem with updated resource mapping, comprehensive expectations for extractive operations and co-ordinated concepts for rehabilitation. Their planning program was difficult, expensive and controversial.

Since the mineral aggregate resource is considered a provincial, not a local resource, the Task Force should recommend that the Province improve mineral aggregate resource mapping to address incompatible use issues, create context- appropriate operational criteria and rehabilitation requirements for the Greenbelt area.

Recommendation: That Council suggests Task Force recommendations on mineral aggregate resource planning be improved. Greenbelt municipalities require the Ministry of Natural Resources to better manage Provincial aggregate resources through updated resource mapping which explicitly considers incompatible uses and establishes detailed context-appropriate operational and rehabilitation objectives rather than uncoordinated, licence-specific solutions.

5. Culture, Recreation and Tourism

The Task Force envisions a Greenbelt where enhanced public access, appropriate cultural and tourist facility development and effective promotion will provide new economic opportunities. Its objective is to regularly draw Ontario residents and tourists into the Greenbelt to reinforce public commitment to its permanence and the wise management of its landscape.

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Proposed Policy Directions:

(a) Culture, recreation and tourism development be compatible with Greenbelt priorities (i.e., agriculture, natural resources and ecosystem protection).

(b) A network of public open spaces be established or reinforced to include parks, navigable waterways and public forests.

(c) A system of trails on public and private land be created with the support of a provincial regulatory framework concerning design, user conflicts, safety and liability.

(d) Support for tourism development dependent on farms, natural areas and rural communities.

Comment:

The Task Force recommendations concerning the use, promotion and development of culture, recreational and tourism focus on laudable objectives. Their recommendations on regulatory improvements for public and private trail development provide assistance for established programs such as the Bruce Trail. However, the Task Force’s recommendations are silent on the comprehensive funding, administrative and marketing mechanisms which are essential to deliver and sustain significant improvements. A very large and diverse group of organizations deliver culture, tourism and recreation services in the Greenbelt and all are struggling with limited resources to finance maintenance of these programs, let alone their enhancement.

Recommendation: That Council support Task Force recommendations respecting culture, recreation and tourism development. However, Council expresses disappointment that funding, administrative and marketing co- ordination and improvements to properly implement the vision have not been addressed.

ADMINISTRATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

The Task Force has not made recommendations on the how a Greenbelt should be administered and implemented. The report merely outlines options for comment.

Implementation Options:

The Task Force suggests implementation could proceed in a number of ways:

(a) Special legislation to create unique land use policies and controls for the defined greenbelt area. This could take a form similar to the Niagara Escarpment Act and the Niagara Escarpment Plan (NEP), or Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan

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(ORMCP), or, enhanced municipal planning objectives under the Provincial Policy Statement created under the Planning Act.

(b) Combine or link the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) and the ORMCP to the Greenbelt area under a separate policy framework or expand those existing planning models to include all Greenbelt areas. Conversely a Greenbelt specific Provincial policy could be created that supersedes the PPS for municipalities to implement.

(c) Greenbelt administration, such as further plan development, decision review or decision-making authority could be assigned to a provincial ministry, a specific regulatory agency such as the NEC, municipalities or a new co-ordinating body.

(d) Specific reforms to existing implementation tools could be made such as: regulatory tools (i.e. Provincial Acts – Planning, Lakes and Rivers Improvement, NEC development permits, new planning guidelines or non- regulatory tools ).

Comments:

The central implementation options for the Greenbelt boil down to the following, in staff’s opinion:

(a) Create or expand an existing special agency (such as the Niagara Escarpment Commission) to develop, promote and administer a unique plan and policy framework for Greenbelt lands. All other agencies must comply by special legislation. (i.e. one agency takes full carriage for administration and others make way);

(b) Leave existing implementation responsibilities in place and establish very specific landscape management plan on each of the foregoing topics through special legislation such as the Oak Ridges Moraine Act to which all agencies must comply. (i.e. the Province creates a very explicit on-the-ground plan and municipalities and other agencies must adapt their individual systems to incorporate it); and,

(c) Leave existing implementation responsibilities in place and create enhanced greenbelt planning objectives to be implemented within existing legislative processes, similar to the Provincial Policy Statement. (i.e. expand the Provincial Policy Statement to add a Greenbelt map and special policy objectives and make it applicable to agencies acting outside the Planning Act, such as conservation authorities, ministries, etc.).

As indicated in the early part of this report, landscape planning and management in Ontario is influenced by a large number of governments and agencies already. It is extremely difficult to co-ordinate all the Federal, Provincial, Municipal and special

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agency actors in this process. Adding another special purpose body to that mix would do little to improve that situation.

In some ways, it would be preferable for the Province of Ontario to conduct and defend the detailed studies, prepare explicit new plan maps and implementation policies to make the full Greenbelt concept a reality. It would save the other agencies and municipalities who must enforce that comprehensive plan, money, staff resources and time. However, the reality is that the Province has neither the time nor internal technical resources to do this, in staff’s view.

Implementation of the Greenbelt concept through existing agencies and legislation similar to the Provincial Policy Statement is the only realistic option. Given the broad landscape planning objectives of the Task Force, only special legislation that demands compliance from all relevant ministries and special purpose agencies will produce sustainable improvement. Municipalities simply lack the tools, authority and resources under the Planning Act to do everything. The Planning Act is fundamentally designed to regulate ‘land use’, not ‘land management’ practices.

Staff also suggest that the Task Force’s Discussion Paper has been significantly impaired by its ‘side-stepping’ of one (1) central issue: financing the vision. The Task Force considers financial issues to be beyond its mandate. This concern has been raised repeatedly in Greenbelt consultation sessions and bears repeating by City Council. The Greenbelt vision presumes local private and public interests that have responsibility to implement Task Force recommendations will somehow find the resources to permanently and comprehensively do things differently. This assumption is simply unrealistic.

42,500 people live in the ‘rural area’ of the City of Hamilton (i.e., outside the designated urban and rural settlement areas such as Binbrook, Waterdown, Carlisle, etc.) According to the 2001 Census, only about 2,750 of those people made all or part of their living in agriculture, forestry, mining and other ‘rural” industries. A very small group are the people who actually do the work to manage the vast majority of the land in our section of the Greenbelt. The majority of them are farmers. Farmers cannot fulfil the landscape stewardship objectives of the Greenbelt if they are forced out of business by the economic challenges in the agricultural industry. In Europe, farmers are ‘paid’ to manage the rural landscape through commodity subsidies. That indirect system is not possible in Canada; however, another system of direct payments for appropriate landscape practices (conservation tillage, nutrient management, woodlot management, ecological restoration) should be seriously explored.

Recommendation: That Council recommend a Greenbelt initiative be implemented through the Provincial Policy Statement and reinforced by legislative reforms that require all relevant ministries and agencies take actions consistent with the PPS and support municipal planning reforms.

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Recommendation: That Council recommend to the Province of Ontario that new financial vehicles be created and properly funded on a long-term basis to ensure that a fair return is provided on the costs of responsible land stewardship within the Greenbelt area.

FINANCIAL/STAFFING/LEGAL IMPLICATIONS:

Financial – None

Staffing – None

Legal – The final content of reforms to be enacted under the Greenbelt Protection Act may have a significant bearing on the scope and conclusions of the City’s GRIDS and Official Plan reform programs.

POLICIES AFFECTING PROPOSAL:

Region of Hamilton-Wentworth Official Plan, Town of Flamborough Official Plan, Town of Ancaster Official Plan, City of Stoney Creek Official Plan, Township of Glanbrook Official Plan.

CONSULTATION WITH RELEVANT DEPARTMENTS/AGENCIES:

N/A

CITY STRATEGIC COMMITMENT:

The protection of rural areas for a viable rural economy, agricultural resources, environmentally sensitive areas, recreation and enjoyment of the rural landscape is one (1) of nine (9) central Directions adopted by Council for the GRIDS and Official Plan reform programs.

CONCLUSIONS:

(a) That the Council of the City of Hamilton respond to the Discussion Paper of the Task Force on the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt as follows:

(i) Council supports Task Force recommendations respecting natural environment planning.

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(vi) Council recommends the Greenbelt initiative be implemented through the Provincial Policy Statement and be reinforced with legislative reforms that require all relevant ministries and agencies to take actions consistent with the PPS and support local planning reforms.

:pdm Attach. (1)

Appendix “A” to Report PD04172 Page 1 of 1

Greenbelt Study Area