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KAREN HOWLETT, The Globe and Mail
The Ontario government's vision for taming urban sprawl in the greater Golden Horseshoe is made up of "complete communities" where people could live, work and shop without ever having to get in their car.
The government released its plan yesterday to curb sprawl, preserve farmland and channel development into already built-up areas in the fastest growing urban region in Canada.
"The growth plan is a visionary plan to create better-planned communities and more opportunities for economic prosperity," said David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.
The measures in the Places to Grow plan seek to harness urban sprawl by concentrating much of any future development within existing municipalities in the area that stretches from Niagara through the Greater Toronto Area to Peterborough and north to Collingwood.
It also includes plans to protect 720,000 hectares of green space between Niagara and Peterborough.
Municipal and environmental leaders praised the plan.
"It will support Toronto's efforts for intensification in our urban centres, protect our valuable natural and cultural heritage, and support the economic competitiveness of the City of Toronto and the entire region," Toronto Mayor David Miller said.
Josh Matlow, campaign director at Earthroots, a non-profit environmental group, also praised the announcement, saying the government is "courageously moving ahead with a plan to focus growth while ensuring that prime agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands are protected."
The plan sets specific density targets over the next 30 years for 26 urban areas that already have the roads, transit and other infrastructure to handle rapid growth.
Of these, 11 are set as priority areas and 15 as "emerging urban centres," such as Markham, Scarborough, Vaughan and Newmarket. All new infrastructure spending, including funds for highways, bridges and public transit, will target these areas.
To protect farmland, 40 per cent of all new growth must be contained within existing built-up areas by 2015, and regions must transform themselves into "compact communities" where residents can walk or ride bicycles to work. These communities would be served by public transit.
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