The Truth About The Kanata Lakes 60% Plus Agreement

So, what of the so-called 40% agreement to protect environmental lands in the Kanata Lakes development in the South March Highlands. Is it really a myth. Apparently so.

The more I examine and analysis the facts and reality around that so-called agreement the more I realize it was just spin.

What is guaranteed is that the developer has the absolute rights to clear-cut, blast and otherwise destroy the environment to build roads, houses and buildings on 60% of the land. In addition to that 60% they have the right to clear-cut and develop an additional portion of the remaining land as a private golf course, which they have done. Any requirements for them to provide parkland or other amenities must not encroach on that 60% Plus, but come from the remaining land. Any land required to provide stormwater management ponds and other such facilities for their development must not come from the 60% Plus but from the remaining land. Any lands such as designated Provincially Significant Wetlands or Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest or setbacks thereto must not encroach on the 60% Plus, but come from whatever land may be remaining.

The only thing that is guaranteed in the so-called agreement is the developers right to destroy the environment on 60% Plus ++ of the land.

And what of the City of Ottawa (and Kanata previously) as well as local (and beyond) politicians roles in this fiasco. I will leave it to the reader to decide whether they are part of a conspiracy, wilfully ignorant, or simply incompetent.

Map of The Kanata Lakes 40% Travesty

click on map for full size image
This map, released by the City of Ottawa, makes it abundantly clear just how much of a travesty the so-called Kanata Lakes 40% agreement is. Indeed it was clearly a public relations exercise that the City of Kanata and Regional Municipality of Ottawa Carleton had to be complicit with, or totally incompetent to be taken in by.

We have an agreement that allows land within the environmentally sensitive South March Highlands to be developed in exchange for "saving" a golf course outside of the South March Highlands (according to the map of SMH in the 2008 Brunton report). When you see just how much of the 40% "greenspace" is taken up by the golf course you realize just how much of a sell-out to the developers this agreement is.

And as we look at the map of the golf course it becomes clear that it was designed to have as many houses bordering on it as possible in order to increase their sales and price. It was clearly all part of a marketing scheme and had nothing to do with saving greenspace or environmentally sensitive land.

This makes the whole process, and the agreement, totally illegitimate and for this reason it is totally legitimate and necessary for the public to continue to fight this and not too late for public authorities to finally do the right thing and save the environmentally important lands northwest of the Goulbourn Forced Road (KNL phases 7 & 8) from destruction by Urbandale/KNL.

Marianne's Folly - Kanata Lakes 40% Agreement

It seemed like a good deal - a developer agreeing to protect 40% of it's land as "greenspace" instead of the normally mandated 5%. It seemed like a good deal till you realize none of that land should be developed in the first place as it was all zoned as environmentally protected conservation lands. The only thing that made it seem like a good deal was the fact that developers rule in Ontario and have their own kangaroo court - the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to threaten communities, municipalities and environmentalists with.

We can argue till the proverbial cows come home whether the deal should have been made or whether the developers bluff should have been called and the original zoning defended by the cities of Kanata, Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton and City of Ottawa.

What we do know is that the agreement could not have been implemented in a worse way, resulting in very little actual environmentally sensitive land being protected and a private golf course being designated as "greenspace".

The first mistake was in designating the allegedly "protected" land as "greenspace" rather than environmentally important land. The second mistake was in not identifying the protected lands at the very beginning before any development took place in Kanata Lakes. And the third, and most important mistake, was in virtually letting the developer decide what was to be in the 40 of "greenspace", leading to such absurdities as the golf course being included in the "protected" lands.

So now we have an unsustainable corridor of protected land, surrounded by development and barely connected to the rest of the South March highlands . That is what we got for giving up the fight to protect all of the South March Highlands - folly indeed.

Bill Teron’s Plan to Destroy The Greenbelt

According to the Ottawa Citizen, “Kanata’s founder”, developer Bill Teron, thinks that there are not enough people using the Greenbelt so we should develop it and build another Ottawa inside it. He states “It's a gorgeous place, but very seldom do you see people within it. Here, a million people would connect."

In case you think you did not read this correctly Bill Teron wants to build a city of one million people inside our Greenbelt.

According to the Citizen: “Within the developed land, Mr. Teron envisioned small "villages" of 5,000 to 10,000 people each, which would be developed around roads such as Woodroffe and Merivale”. After all, what good are environmental lands with trails in them when you can have villages instead. And what good is greenspace without roads running through it, as Teron states: “"We would be the only city in the world in which our ring roads were through a green paradise."

As a regular user of the greenbelt I know people use it. They may not crammed together on the trails or lined up to get on them like at a ride at Canada’s Wonderland but they are using the trails, and enjoying them because they are not congested. One can only imagine what putting a city of a million people inside it would do to the Greenbelt. Not being a fan of horror movies I would rather not imagine that

And yes, Teron has some novel ideas about adding to the greenbelt, but that would not make up for destroying what is there now. We all know what would happen if this plan was taken seriously - the negative parts of the plan would be implemented and then it would be discovered that the positive aspects are “impractical and unworkable”.

It is time for us all to stand up for the greenbelt.