Province blocked mayor’s rezoning vote
Letter from housing minister said 12 parcels of land were to be protected as part of Highway 413
A GTA mayor’s attempt to use “strong mayor” powers to fasttrack thousands of hectares of development in her municipality was cut short after the province warned that half the proposed rezoning approvals lay along the future route of Highway 413.
Caledon Mayor Annette Groves had planned this week to force council to vote to rezone 12 parcels of land at once along the interchanges of the contentious 60-kilometre highway — also referred to as GTA West — that will connect Vaughan to Milton via Caledon.
The move — which faced massive protests from residents — would have converted agricultural and environmentally sensitive land to open-ended zoning for a range of uses from supermarkets to shopping centres to highrises to sprawling single-family mansions.
It would also have approved zoning for some 35,000 new homes, nearly triple the number required to meet Caledon’s provincial housing pledge.
Early Friday evening — a day after hundreds of residents attended a heated town hall meeting to voice concerns — Groves announced in an Instagram post that the “12 rezoning items have been removed from the agenda.”
She said the residents’ voices had “been heard and concerns respected.”
But Groves’s announcement came hours after she received a letter from Housing Minister Paul Calandra, shared with the Star, that said “ministry staff have reviewed the proposed Zoning By-law
Amendments and identified that 6 of the 12 proposed Zoning By-law Amendments are within the Focused Analysis Area of the Highway 413 Transportation.”
Calandra said six of the developments were in conflict with the town and region’s official plan — both of which require the large corridor where the highway will run “to be protected” for further study.
Groves, who was elected as mayor partly because of her strong resistance to sprawl development and her opposition to the GTA West highway, told the Star her decision was not made in response to the province’s letter, but rather because she “listened to our residents and stakeholders.”
In an email to the Star, Janet Eagleson, the town’s public affairs manager, said the mayor removed the agenda item because of concerns of residents “who overwhelmingly told us that they weren’t against development, they simply needed more information.”
Caledon councillors are livid that the mayor didn’t circulate Calandra’s letter, which they only learned of from the Star.
“She’s trying to switch the narrative,” said Lynn Kiernan (Ward 1). “She’s saying she listened to the people. No, she hasn’t. She has been told to cease and desist. What’s gone on here is profoundly wrong. The public didn’t know any of this.”
Last week, a staff report from Peel Region, which Groves did not make publicly available, had also expressed concern with the mayor’s decision, noting the rezoning amendments are “premature” and “do not conform to the Regional Official Plan.”
They also expressed concern that the approvals were moving ahead without any planning or technical studies, and that they lacked the necessary infrastructure — and any discussions on who would finance those crucial services.
“While the region is a supportive partner in addressing the housing crisis and delivering affordable housing, without fundamentals such as servicing in place, houses cannot be constructed regardless of the approval of a Zoning By-law Amendment like this one,” Peel planning staff wrote in a report to the town.
However, before she received the letter from the province, Groves seemed poised to push ahead, insisting that “all of these properties … are part of the urban boundary expansion.”
The region’s reports however noted that four of the 12 parcels were outside the urban boundary.
Groves’s spokesperson said Calandra’s letter and the Peel Region report will be addressed by staff as part of “standard process.”
At a council meeting on Tuesday, Groves said she was committed to more public consultation on the issue.
Some elected officials are concerned about the mayor’s ability to effectively govern following the recent exodus of many senior staff, including the town’s clerk, chief planner and lawyer, who councillors said were let go after the mayor hired a new chief administrative officer using her “strong mayor” powers.
“When I saw all those senior staff leave, I thought it was a massive drain of talent, of corporate and community history,” said Dave Sheen (Ward 2). “I thought it was really damaging for Caledon.”
Eagleson told the Star its planning team is well staffed and that the turnover rate is “consistent with historical patterns.”
Caledon residents told council they opposed the lack of transparency around the identity of the developers who stand to benefit from the zoning changes. Coun. Lynn Kiernan (Ward 1) shared the names she had received from planning staff, including development companies Argo Development Corp. and Solmar Development Corp.
Argo was one of eight developers named in a 2021 Star investigation on the 413 that found that eight landowners owned thousands of acres along the highway route.
While the rezoning vote didn’t go through this week, the issue is “far from over,” said Debbe Crandall, a spokesperson for Democracy Caledon, a local residents’ group that has been publicly fighting the use of “strong mayor” powers.
“We’re urging people to keep delegating, to ask the question, ‘What now?’ ”