Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 123, Number 1 • Connecting Communities 2005
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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In a stunningly disappointing decision in October 2004, the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), which hears municipal land use planning appeals, ruled that the first phase of the Castle Glen resort community on the Niagara Escarpment near Collingwood, on Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, will be allowed to proceed.
The hearing dealt only with the lands below the Escarpment face instead of considering the entire property (620 hectares or 1, 530 acres) owned by the Castle Glen Development Corporation. The Castle Glen Ratepayers Association (CGRA), the only opposing party, had argued that the application should be dealt with as a whole, but in spite of compelling arguments by CGRA’s planning witness that splitting the application in two represented poor land use planning, the OMB disagreed.
What has been approved, subject to satisfactory completion of the environmental assessment for the water and sewer servicing for the site, are 543 homes, 150 hotel units, 1,500 square meters of commercial uses, and a number of golf holes. If and when Phase 2 is allowed to proceed, the total development would be 1,600 homes that would house 7,000 people, 300 hotel rooms, three golf courses, 54,000 square feet of commercial space, civic and institutional uses, professional offices, schools, a healthclinic, a gas station, and even a wedding chapel. This amounts to an “instant town” that has no precedent on the environmentally fragile Niagara Escarpment.
The Castle Glen property is of high ecological value. On it are headwater watercourses for significant coldwater streams, headwater wetlands, headwater woodlands, a lake (Lake of the Clouds), karst aquifers, areas of steep slopes and the dramatic Escarpment cliff, fish habitat and spawning grounds, two provincially significant wetlands and locally significant wetlands, numerous coldwater springs of which many have substantial year-round water flow, and provincially and nationally rare species.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. The alternative to proceeding with the development is a buy-out of the developer at an as-yet unknown but certainly large sum. Significant government and/or corporate support would be required. It is hoped that talks towards a land acquisition strategy are successful so that a costly Phase 2 OMB hearing does not need to proceed, and so this property including prominent, forested Escarpment slopes is protected entirely as a public park in the Niagara Escarpment Parks and Open Space System.
Logan Pond is located in the city of Sarnia, along the Lake Huron shore where the lake empties into the St. Clair River. The pond is a remnant from sand and gravel extraction activities that naturally filled with water. It now covers about 14 acres, averaging about four metres (13 feet) deep. The pond has naturalized over the years and provides a stopover for migrating birds. It is now managed by the Sarnia Urban Wildlife Committee (SUWC), which has been actively conserving natural areas throughout Sarnia since 1994.
The Sarnia Urban Wildlife Committee has worked to ensure that the land uses surrounding the pond are beneficial to the pond habitat, including securing a six-metre (20-foot) naturalized buffer around the pond’s edge from existing development, which has attracted more wildlife to the site. Problems arose when new homes were built and the buffer was not secured along the water’s edge. Along this side of the pond, a naturalized buffer does not exist and the pond is being significantly damaged by some landowners.
In 2003, the SUWC approached their city council to ask council to officially recognize Logan Pond as a special natural area in the city’s official plan, proposing a passive green space with limited recreational access. A zoning bylaw amendment was passed by council to support the proposal. SUWC is now working to ensure Logan Pond is restored and that the negative impacts do not continue.
To contact SUWC, e-mail: info@suwc.org
Lake Erie Basin - Ontario Side Advisor |