When the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act (ORMCA) and ensuing Plan (ORMCP) were passed in 2001, there were a number of applications for development already in process on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Some of these applications had received initial approvals, and were thus ‘grandfathered,’ meaning that these developments would not be subject to the new protection afforded by the ORMCP. Other applications had been started, but no approvals granted. These developments are considered ‘transitional’ and are exempt from all but a few sections of the ORMCP protection.  

Our work with the Westhill Redevelopment case in Aurora, where developers are trying to sneak an inappropriate transitional golf course and residential development onto a sensitive and allegedly protected portion of the Oak Ridges Moraine (see WESTHILL DEVELOPMENT), has focused our attention on the larger threat posed by these outstanding development applications.  

 

Not only do transitional and grandfathered developments have a loophole allowing them to by-pass some or all aspects of the ORMCP, but no one with any branch of government, academia, or the public is tracking how many of these developments exist, or measuring what their cumulative impacts may be on the Oak Ridges Moraine’s sensitive ecological and hydrological features. The issue here is that information regarding these developments is embedded in records kept by the 32 separate municipal planning departments for settlements on the Moraine.  

In our dealings with Aurora regarding the Westhill case, Aurora planners were able to identify 4 transitional developments that fall within their municipality. We expect other municipalities could look back over records regarding outstanding development applications, and identify specific transitional and grandfathered developments within their given municipalities. Unfortunately, there is no neat list or overarching compilation of all of this dispersed information, meaning that the number of and potential threats posed by grandfathered and transitional developments is largely unknown.  

 

Not accounting for or even identifying these developments is a huge oversight on the part of the provincial government, and points to the general unwillingness of the province to ensure proper monitoring of on the ground activities on the Moraine, or implementation of their landmark Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan.  

Earthroots and Ecojustice, formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund, are at the preliminary stages of a research project aimed at identifying and tracking all of the transitional and grandfathered developments on the Oak Ridges Moraine, in the hopes of quantifying the threats and potential impacts associated with these developments. Research will take place over the 2009 calendar year.  

 

This project is part of a larger effort to identify key threats to the Moraine that are falling outside the purview of the ORMCP in preparation for the upcoming review of the legislation in 2016. Earthroots and Ecojustice are also studying the groundwater takings of all golf courses, aggregate operations, industrial operations, and municipalities across the Moraine as a follow up to our successful 2008 Ontario’s Water Hazard report.  

 

By pairing these two projects, we hope to be able to identify hotspot areas were there are a high concentration of transitional and grandfathered developments, and then to evaluate were these areas coverage with areas experiencing a high concentration of groundwater takings and/or issues with water shortages. To learn more about our research on groundwater takings on the Moraine, visit GROUNDWATER RESEARCH.