ENVISION DURHAM
Municipal Comprehensive Review
Durham Region’s Draft Official Plan is a multigenerational screw-up of epic proportions, and the Plan could receive final approval as early as May 17. That is why it is so important to speak up against this Plan now.
Taken together, recent decisions of Durham Council and the Province will push 14,000 acres of new sprawl into Durham. That means 14,000 acres of farmland, wetland and woodland destroyed forever. It means taxpayers will pay higher taxes for decades to subsidize infrastructure costs for the benefit of big developers. Sprawl undermines our ability to build climate-resilient communities as urgently required.
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DURHAM OFFICIAL PLAN TO BE APPROVED ON MAY 17!
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MAKE A DELEGATION
If you wish to make a delegation before Council, please submit your request in writing to delegations@durham.ca by noon on Monday, May 15.
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CALL YOUR REGIONAL COUNCILLORS
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(click above to download a list to copy email addresses from)
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Despite what you might hear from your local leaders, this is still a DRAFT! There is time to submit comments and ask for amendments. Yes, it is a synthesis of years of planning consultations. No, it is not the best we can do for a viable regional growth plan.
Before the new Greenbelt carveouts were added, Regional Council had already dedicated 3,671 hectares (9,071 acres) of new farmland areas to future urban development, out to 2051. Now, with the Greenbelt lands carved out by the Province, we're up to approximately 14,000 acres of new land; an amount that is both costly and unnecessary to accommodate the housing Durham needs.
At present, Durham Region is going all-in on creating car-dependent subdivisions and sealing precious prime agricultural lands under buildings and pavement. We can aim higher, and we're asking for your help in pushing for more intensification in transit station areas, gentle density in established communities, and maximizing existing growth areas already dedicated to development (e.g. Seaton)!
To accommodate new provincial housing pledges, we also don't need the additional Greenbelt lands forced upon Durham Region by the Province. Please continue to say #HandsOffTheGreenbelt too!
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Click on the maps below to access the Region of Durham source report and learn more about the urban expansion planned for your area over the next 30 years. You can still influence these plans by speaking with your councillors and mayors.
Sprawl costs us all, and the push out into more rural, unserviced farmlands and natural heritage areas will be expensive for taxpayers and exacerbate the climate crisis. Don't delay...speak up today!
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We made a submission to Envision Durham on January 18, 2023, and again on April 3, 2023. Feel free to borrow from any of our points when you share your concerns with elected leaders.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
On May 25, 2022, Durham Region Council voted to sacrifice approximately 3770 hectares (9300 acres) of farmland for more suburban sprawl between now and 2050. In so doing the Council, by a vote of 16 -11, rejected the extensive recommendations of its own professional planning staff, and rejected nearly all the public input received from concerned citizens. Instead, Council endorsed the planning scenario favoured by the big developers and land speculators in BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association).
The Region’s own professional staff warned that this BILD scenario of continued sprawl will make it difficult or impossible for the Region to meet its climate goals, and will make it difficult or impossible to build and maintain adequate public transit.
