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Region seeks input on Sustainable Halton By Tim Foran METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP 3 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Halton Region will host a series of public information sessions later this month to gather public feedback on the final growth concepts proposed for its Sustainable Halton process. The planning process is being done to come into conformity with the Province's Places to Grow Act of 2006, which outlined growth targets for the Golden Horseshoe up to the year 2031, essentially beginning in 2015. The Region plans to submit an official plan amendment by the Province's deadline of mid-June, with specific details on where exactly new growth and infill developments will take place among the four municipalities to be worked out later this year. Under the provincial legislation, the Region must plan to meet a population target of 780,000 by 2031 and an employment target of 390,000. It can neither go over nor under these targets. This is not drastically different than the growth the Region would have had without the Places to Grow Act in place, according to a regional planning consultant. However, what the legislation does is force the Region to meet its population targets through a more intense development than has happened over past decades, thereby reducing the amount of farm fields that are paved over and contributing to more transit-oriented development. Specifically, there are essentially three aspects of the legislation to which the Region and its municipalities must conform. They include: · Infill development: Starting in the year 2015, infill development must become a greater priority in local development. Specifically, for every 10 new residents to the region, four must be accommodated in existing built boundaries, essentially the urban areas of Burlington, Oakville, Georgetown and Acton, and Milton. The Region calculates this means a need to plan for 32,200 units of residential housing within the towns and cities, generally in the form of apartments and condominiums, which often translates into redevelopment of underused lands such as strip malls on major roads. · Intensification: Much of the infill development required will be accommodated in what the Province has designated as the urban growth centres of downtown Burlington, mid-town Oakville and downtown Milton. In these areas, the municipalities are required to plan for a density target of 200 residents and jobs per hectare. · Greenfield growth that meets a density target of 50 jobs and residents per hectare: While intensification will take place in all the urban communities of Halton, due to the build out of Burlington and Oakville, new greenfield growth can only be accommodated in Milton and Halton Hills. This essentially translates into the expansion of urban areas into 2,780 gross hectares of what are now generally designated agricultural areas. It is the latter issue that generates most public interest, both from citizens concerned about the loss of farmlands and from developers who push the Region to designate their lands as part of the urban area. The preferred option for this growth includes 1,100 hectares of employment lands to be located along Steeles Avenue and Highway 401, some of Highway 407 near where it meets Hwy. 401, and along Tremaine Road south of Britannia Road near the CN rail tracks. The preferred option for the 1,680 hectares of new residential and retail areas, which will accommodate about 80,000 people, is for 20,000 people to be accommodated through an expansion of Georgetown's urban area and for housing for 60,000 people in Milton, generally requiring an extension of the town's eastern border to Mississauga north of Britannia. To meet the Province's density target for Greenfield growth, the new mix of housing in Georgetown and Milton would have to be made up of more townhouses and low-rise apartments rather than large singlefamily houses, with some higher condominiums around the proposed GO station at Trafalgar Road on the Milton line. The public feedback session in Oakville is on Wednesday, April 29 from 6-9 p.m. at the Halton Regional Centre Auditorium, 1151 Bronte Rd. Formal presentation begins at 7 p.m. More information, including a series of technical reports on the Sustainable Halton process, can be found at www.halton.ca/sustainablehalton. 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