Oakvillegreen was founded by citizens concerned about the Town’s plan to develop 7,600 acres of agricultural land in Oakville north of Dundas. As of January 2008, the final decision on that land is now in the hands the Ontario Municipal Board. The Town did reach a settlement with most of the developers prior to the OMB hearing and the good news is, because of Oakvillegreen’s efforts about ¼ of the land will be preserved as a Natural Heritage System. As soon as the final decision of the OMB is rendered, we will let you know. Below, please find a history of our battle to preserve natural spaces, protect significant natural features and ensure energy-efficient, compact urban design in North Oakville. 

In 2000, Oakville’s Town council began making plans (OPA198) to bring 7,600 acres of agricultural land north of Dundas into Oakville’s urban envelope so it could be developed.

A group of individuals who attended these meetings were appalled by what they heard and concerned the public was not aware of Council’s plans. They joined together and created Oakvillegreen.

The People Speak

Oakvillegreen was effective in its campaign to inform the public about OPA 198 and people started to attend council meetings in large numbers - in fact, sometimes so many people attended that Council chambers couldn’t accommodate everyone.

On many occasions councillors told members of the public and Oakvillegreen that these meetings were not the time to raise concerns.  Concerns about mapping, preserving and linking environmentally sensitive lands would all be taken care of during the Secondary Planning Process. Nevertheless, the public and Oakvillegreen persisted in making their voices heard.

In numerous presentations to Council, Oakvillegreen noted the area north of Dundas formed the headwaters of many rivers and creeks and any development would negatively impact those watersheds. They argued that continuing to build sprawling communities in light of what we now know about the cost of this kind of development to taxpayers, its negative impact on traffic congestion and air quality was pure folly.

Citizens rose in Council to make their voices heard. They talked about how important the rural lands were to Oakville’s ambience. They spoke passionately about the need to protect nature and preserve trees and wildlife for their own sake. They pleaded for officials to consider the effect “growth as usual” policies were having on climate change and on the quality of life of Oakville’s current citizens. They found documents that proved the existence of the Trafalgar Morraine and argued its importance in protecting our watershed.

Despite this, in May 2002, council narrowly passed the growth plan.

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Decision Appealed

Developers, Oakvillegreen and Clear The Air Coalition appealed this decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.

In an effort to resolve the situation, a committee of scientists from the municipal, provincial and federal governments, with input from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Conservation Halton, convened to identify the most essential natural features that should be preserved and then linked them together with enough land to be viable wildlife corridors. The process became known as the Inter-Agency Review (IAR).

In light of the agreement to perform the IAR, Oakvillegreen and Clear The Air Coalition settled their Ontario Municipal Board appeal.

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The Natural Heritage System

The mapping of the lands that needed to be preserved and their essential wildlife corridor linkages is known as The Natural Heritage System. When the Natural Heritage System was presented to the public it received widespread support. It seemed the preservation of the Natural Heritage System (NHS), as recommended by scientists working for all three levels of government, would be assured, however, Town staff said the NHS lands must be “managed” and to manage them, the Town would have to buy them. Staff estimated the purchase price for the lands at $250 million.

Oakvillegreen and other groups raised immediate objections to this premise.

First, they didn’t believe the lands needed to be managed at all. They argued nature can quite effectively take care of itself. In fact, they argued that human management of natural resources has often led to disaster such as the collapse of the cod stocks or the increased risk of fire in “managed” forests.

Second, they argued, the lands didn’t need to be purchased to protect them from development, they could be zoned. The Province, a higher planning authority than the Town, agreed that zoning could be used to protect the NHS from development.

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No Secondary Plan

In the meantime, the Town never got around to completing a Secondary Plan for the area north of Dundas.They made some preliminary attempts at breaking up some of the 7,600 acres and creating more detailed plans for certain parts of it, for instance, the Trafalgar Road corridor, but they never completed an overall plan. This gave developers, who already own most of the agricultural land North of Dundas, a wonderful opportunity.

They created their own Secondary Plan. It was no surprise to Oakvillegreen that the developers’ Secondary Plan greatly reduced the size of the Natural Heritage System and wiped out most of the linkages between environmentally sensitive areas. In the developers’ plan only a very small portion of land identified by the scientists involved in the IAR would be given complete protection from development. Most of the land in the NHS could potentially be developed or be used for schools and sportsfields.

At first glance, schools may not seem incompatible but when you think that schools are really large buildings surrounded by expansive concrete parking lots, it’s easy to see how destructive this would be.

Unfortunately, Provincial Planning rules allowed the developers to take their plan to the Ontario Municipal Board for approval.

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Citizen’s Get No Voice

Since the Town has no plan or its own they are in a weak position at the Ontario Municipal Board hearings where they can question the developers’ plan but not offer their own alternative.

It’s essential to note that, because the Town did not proceed with their own Secondary Plan, the public did not get the chance to have input on it. If people had not turned out for the OPA 198 hearings and if Oakvillegreen had not made numerous presentations to Council and challenged Council’s plans for development at the Ontario Municipal Board winning some concessions, Oakville’s citizens would have had virtually no input on the development of 7,600 acres of land in their community.

Oakvillegreen has very serious concerns about this process whereby a lone, unelected bureaucrat, presiding over the OMB hearing gets to decide a community’s future. Is this democracy? Is this how planning should work? Is this how Town Council and staff should have handled the most critical development issue Oakville has ever faced?

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The Settlement

In the Spring of 2006, the Town of Oakville announced it had reached a settlement with the major landowners involved in the OMB Secondary Planning case. After reviewing the agreement and realizing this was likely the best deal the Town could get, Oakvillegreen supported the agreement. The deal protected most of the Natural Heritage System that was identified by the IAR, however, there was an overall reduction in the size of the Natural Heritage System, some buffers were reduced and some linkages including important east-west connections were lost.

It is also important to note that two developers who own two of the most significant natural areas, the Neyagawa Woodland and the Buttonbush Swamp, were not a party to this deal.

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So, where do we go from here?

Because the two of the developers have not settled, the case is still before The Ontario Municipal Board. At some point either a deal will be made or the OMB will make a ruling. We will keep you informed as developments occur. IF there is an opportunity for public comment we will let you know.

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Our Beliefs

Oakvillegreen believes it’s essential for the health of our community that no more land be lost from the Natural Heritage System. We believe that the Natural Heritage System as it was orginally identified by scientists during the IAR process was based on the best available science and any change to it compromises the integrity of the system and the health of our community.

We believe there needs to be more reform of the Provincial Planning Process. We believe there must also be more reform to the Ontario Municipal Board. We believe we cannot have a healthy community if we don not have a healthy environmnent.

We believe Town Council and staff must walk their talk and make environment a priority.

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Our Commitment

Protection of Oakville’s environment, through the creation of a Natural Heritage System in north Oakville and the development of a planning process that lives up to the Town’s fine words about putting the environment first, has always been a primary focus of Oakvillegreen. We will remain committed to ensuring that there are no further losses to the proposed Natural Heritage System as the process moves forward.