Changes to Green Belt Areas could see over 7,000 acres of Erin added

With the passing of Bill-23 today entitled the “More Homes Built Faster Act” the legislation not only restricts planning authority of local governments, including limiting on how much they can collect in development charges, it also opens 7,400 acres of the Greenbelt for development.

Alternately the move aims at replacing this now-unprotected land with 9,400 acres of land from the Paris Galt Moraine area, with over 7,000 acres of which are in the Town of Erin.

This proposed change was outlined in a November 4th letter from Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing Steve Clark.

Director of Planning for the Town, Jack Krubnik, says that there wouldn’t be much change due to the land in Erin being added.

“A lot of our protections within our existing policies are similar to the Greenbelt Policies. Some may be impacts related to site-alteration which may be more prohibited or restrictive within the Greenbelt.”

An issue raised by Krubnik was the accuracy of the expansion boundary.

“I would recommend they have a closer look of the Greenbelt expansion into Erin so it better aligns with the identified moraines and aligns better with the Provincial mapping for the park.”

The letter from Minister Clark was received by Council at the November 24th meeting.