Henry: Nobody wants this

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

The province has called for a series of changes to how many people can live and work in urban areas – those new numbers, however, could have an undesired effect in Oshawa.

Last year, the province started reviews on four plans for growth: the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the Greenbelt Plan, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan and the Niagara Escarpment Plan.

While key parts of the plan aim at improving transit and aging infrastructure and building greener communities, it is the parts that detail plans to combat urban sprawl that have been the most contested.

Currently, the province has dictated cities must develop greenfield areas, with the goal of having 50 people and jobs per hectare within their “built-up” area, and 40 per cent of new development must take place within this area. These numbers also increase when dealing with downtown areas and surrounding transit hubs.

For Oshawa, the “built boundary” is a jagged line that bisects the city from east to west primarily just north of Conlin Road and jutting down below Taunton Road east of Harmony Road.

If the draft legislation is approved, those targets could increase to 80 people and jobs per hectare, with 60 per cent of new development occurring within the built-up area.

Mayor John Henry says this proposal has been unanimously slammed by municipalities. In a meeting of GTA mayors with Premier Kathleen Wynne, it was made clear that the new targets were widely unpopular.

“There wasn’t a community at the table that was in support of this,” Henry says.

In a special meeting of the development services committee on Aug. 22, councillors heavily questioned staff members on the impact these changes could have on the city.

Councillors learned that if the new density targets are approved, it could mean big changes in the north end.

“The result is simple – it would be more high rises, more townhouses and fewer single family homes,” says Councillor John Aker, chair of the development services committee.

“The proposed legislation is not good legislation….legislation like this really starts to end the single family home.”

Oshawa is currently struggling to meet the existing target of 50 jobs and people per hectare, and is far off from obtaining the amount of development in its built up area this year to meet the province’s 40 per cent target. For that reason, the new targets are a bit of a stretch.

“It would be very difficult for us to achieve,” says Warren Munro, the city’s director of planning services, adding the main problem is that much of the city’s ready-to-be developed land inside the built boundary is already built on.

“A lot of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked,” he says.

The province has also not dictated how these changes would impact already approved development plans.

For example, the city’s Kedron Part II plan, which plans for development on a large swath of the city’s north end, was built and planned for the province’s 50 jobs and people per hectare target.

Now, if the new targets are approved, the lack of jobs and people in the Kedron plan will need to be made up in other developments.

“It might take a community like Columbus…and turn that community into something that was not anticipated or planned for,” says Councillor Bob Chapman.

“I just think it’s not a good move by the province. It doesn’t bode well.”

Following a recommendation from staff, the committee approved a motion to send comments to the province stating the city is against the new targets.

The final approval will be before council today (Aug. 24) in a special meeting of council at 10 a.m.