County Warden pleased the province changing course on urban expansion

WELLINGTON COUNTY – Wellington County’s warden said the province's rolling back of changes it imposed on local official plans is a positive development that will mean more influence on urban boundary expansion by local policy makers.

Municipal affairs and housing minister Paul Calandra announced Monday he will be introducing legislation that will reverse official plan decisions for Wellington County, Guelph and other municipalities that saw the province mandate changes to municipal plans guiding growth and development. 

The province’s approval of the county’s Official Plan Amendment (OPA) 119, which deals with and manages Wellington County’s mandated population and housing growth to 2051, earlier this year included an urban boundary expansion by more than 1,000 acres that was not sought by county planning staff.

A majority of this was in Elora and Fergus, but Rockwood and Clifford saw some urban expansion as well.

In a phone call, Wellington County Warden Andy Lennox said he expects the county will need to expand its urban boundaries to accommodate more housing but this reversal allows for more input from local staff.

“We may be able to do it in a more orderly way that matches with our ability to service the lands which I think is really important if we’re going to build 1.5 million homes across the province,” Lennox said.

There were other minor changes from the province but Lennox said he didn’t see them as big issues compared to the urban boundary expansion.

“Particularly in Centre Wellington but also the one in Guelph/Eramosa (Rockwood) where they don’t have servicing capability at all,” Lennox said. “This makes a lot more sense if we can review it and apply some of those lenses to it.”

From his understanding of the announcement, Lennox said this will come back to staff and council to review and adjust it but noted more information on this should be coming in the near future.

Calandra replaced Steve Clark as Minister of Housing in September after Clark stepped down amid investigations into the ministry's handling of removing land from the Greenbelt for development. 

Calandra said in his statement he was reviewing past decisions by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to ensure they support the goal of building 1.5 million homes in a way that maintains public trust. 

“In reviewing how decisions were made regarding official plans, it is now clear that they failed to meet this test,” Calandra said in a statement.

“To ensure that the reset plans match our shared ambitions to build more homes, especially now that municipalities have made their housing pledges, we will be asking impacted municipalities to submit changes and updates to those plans to ministry staff within 45 days of today, including information on projects that are already underway.”

In a statement, Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner called this another “flip-flop from a government that has wanted years lining speculators’ pockets instead of providing real solutions to the housing crisis.”

“For two years, this government has poured their time, money and energy into helping well-connected insiders cash in on sprawl,” Schreiner said.

“Meanwhile, so many Ontarians can’t even make rent, let alone think about purchasing a home. This government is spiralling out of control. For months now, Ontarians have been bombarded with last-ditch reversals and half-hearted apologies that have more to do with protecting the government’s image than solving the housing crisis. As a result, we’re years behind where we should be.”