{"id":55279,"date":"2020-10-11T11:31:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T16:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=55279"},"modified":"2020-10-11T11:31:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T16:31:52","slug":"economy-vs-environment-york-region-seeking-a-process-to-develop-greenbelt-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=55279","title":{"rendered":"Economy vs. environment: York Region seeking a process to develop Greenbelt lands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Economy vs. environment: York Region seeking a process to develop Greenbelt lands<\/a><\/h3>\n

Newmarket mayor says public should be consulted after environmentalists sound alarm<\/strong><\/p>\n

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York Region councillors voted Thursday to ask the province to open up parts of the Greenbelt to developers \u2014 but a vocal few are saying the public should have been consulted first.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At a committee of the whole meeting Oct. 8, regional councillors and mayors debated a resolution asking the province to \u201cunlock\u201d protected land along the 400-series highways to allow for employment growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the days before the scheduled vote,\u00a0environmental activists sounded the alarm<\/a>, blasting the region for \u201cattacking the Greenbelt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Environmental Defence Executive Director Tim Gray warned that caving to pressure from developers and land speculators would set a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The region has been asking to develop the 400-series land for years and asked staff to prepare a report examining benefits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Iain Lovatt, mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville, led the charge, calling the activists’ accusations \u201cutterly false and offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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All municipalities \u201csupport, cherish and celebrate\u201d the protected lands, but it\u2019s been a polarizing issue and it\u2019s time to address it head-on, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI believe there\u2019s a fine balance that needs to be found between local municipal financial viability and managing the burden on local taxpayers while maintaining the importance and improving the Greenbelt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s an especially important issue for Whitchurch Stouffville, with 95 per cent of land protected under the Oak Ridges Moraine and most employment land in the south of the region, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His town is targeting three areas along the 404 \u2014 at Stouffville Road, Aurora Road and Davis Drive \u2014 for employment, he said.<\/p>\n

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It would be a game-changer, providing 26,000 jobs and more than $62 million in new taxes, he said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Economy vs. environment: York Region seeking a process to develop Greenbelt lands Newmarket mayor says public should be consulted after environmentalists sound alarm York Region councillors voted Thursday to ask the province to open up parts of the Greenbelt to developers \u2014 but a vocal few are saying the public should have been consulted first. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[18819,391,30404,30405,30401,30402,30403],"class_list":["post-55279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-environment","tag-greenbelt","tag-growth","tag-kim-zarzour","tag-whitchurch-stouffville","tag-york-region","tag-york-region-council","tag-yorkregion-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55280,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55279\/revisions\/55280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}