All photos credit: Dan O’Reilly – Residents protest outside of Caledon Town Hall last night before the Council meeting.
It’s June 26th 2024. It was a beautiful sunny morning that followed a long sad night.
But there were a lot of happy developers this morning.
The irony is not lost on us that one of the strategies of the mayor’s election campaign was frequently referring to her opponent as “the developers’ candidate.”
Over two dozen people spoke at last night’s Caledon Town Council meeting. The majority spoke in opposition to the mayor’s plan to pre-zone 35,000 units in Caledon. But while they spoke with logic, intelligence, and passion it made no difference in the end.
Even virtually watching the six and a half hour meeting one started to sense it was a foregone conclusion.
At the heart of many of the delegations was the fact that the mayor had broken a promise to residents. She had committed publicly to not holding this vote over the summer months. “You made a promise, and we trusted you to live up to it,” said Nicola Ross.
Ross was the first of several to ask that the Town play, for the audience, the section of the video from the Bolton information session where resident Debbe Crandall had asked for the commitment and Groves had given it. That request was never fulfilled. Eventually Bolton resident, a former Councillor, Rob Mezzapelli, held his phone to the mic during his delegation and played it.
Mezzapelli utilized his 10-minute window to express, “categorically I do not support the use of Strong Mayor Powers which Mayor Groves has used numerous times including the means by which to bring the zoning bylaws forward. To me, Strong Mayor Powers are exercised because the mayor cannot collaborate, negotiate and, God forbid, compromise, with their colleagues.”
“I also categorically do not support rezoning bylaws that are being considered tonight.” Speaking to Caledon’s portion of the provincial housing pledge, he said that the 13,000 units Caledon committed to in its pledge meant that Caledon would grown by almost the population of Bolton in seven short years.
“Mayor Groves’ proposal, notably written by an outside planning lawyer representing one of the developers poised to benefit if their lands are developed, is to rezone lands to triple this amount, consuming thousands and thousands, 5,000 to be exact, acres of Caledon’s best agricultural land.” Mezzapelli concluded his delegation referring to how some Councillors had called Caledon’s previous planning ‘piecemeal’ and said what they were doing here was ‘piecemeal on steroids.’
Debbe Crandall, one of the founders of the citizens’ group Democracy Caledon, questioned “How can staff now negotiate anything with these developers once they’ve received zoning? By giving them the zoning at the front end, she (the mayor) will be handing the keys to Caledon’s future to wealthy developers and their friends.”
Crandall continued “Councillors, you’ve seen how the mayor said one thing before the election and is now doing quite the opposite.”
“Opposition to the 413? No more.”
“Upholding by-law enforcement? No more.”
“Listening to people and making sure that the public is in the driver’s seat? No more.” “Making sure that Caledon develops Caledon and not the developers. No. No. No.”
“And now this. The mayor, as she has done time and time again, has thrown somebody else under the bus, in this case Town staff. She said, “they were ready to bring this forward. Obviously not.”
Caledon resident Cheryl Connors asserted that Council was “violating the Planning Act and breaking the law.” About the process Connors called it deeply disappointing with “no answers to even basic questions.”
“We are asking for a fair process and one that follows the law,” Connors said. “There has been a gross lack of public consultation. The public has no role in site planning amendments, no role in what secondary plans look like.”
“At least take the time to go through the proper planning approval process, do the growth management plan, complete the secondary plans, my goodness at the very minimum require these developers to file applications. I can’t believe I even have to say that out loud,” she expressed with frustration.
Delegant Phil Pothen, in-house Counsel and land use land development program manager for Environmental Defence, the leading environmental NGO with expertise on land use and land development issues in Ontario, said that “slamming the brakes on further car-dependent greenfield sprawl in the Golden Horseshoe and densifying pretty much all of the region’s existing neighbourhoods into complete communities with a mix of uses is vital to meeting Ontario’s climate obligations, saving species at risk, and to fixing the housing shortage, which is a major source of environmental injustice in Ontario.”
“I’m urging this council to reject the package of blank check greenfield rezoning applications that are before you today and if this council does not do the right thing, we’ll be urging provincial politicians of all stripes to commit to reverse any approvals in their entirety without any payment of costs or compensation to the proponent.”
Most of the delegants who were opposed asked Council to defer the vote until fall as had been promised. Resident Alan Boughton said “It’s never the right time to do the wrong thing. It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing. It is the right time to do the right thing. Defer.”
Councillor Christina Early, Councillor Dave Sheen and Councillor Lynn Kiernan were the only councillors present who shared sentiment with the residents that the vote was being rushed and wanted to see it held off until fall.
Early brought forward a motion to refer, which did not pass. Sheen put forward a motion to defer. This also failed.
Despite Early, Sheen and Kiernan’s votes in opposition to the motion 11of 12 of the rezoning bylaws passed with one referred to staff and will return on July 23rd.
Democracy Caledon responded to an email this afternoon saying they are regrouping and looking at next steps.
