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Midwest Regional Conservation Committee "SPRAWL HURTS US ALL" REPORT SHOWS TAXPAYERS LOSE Download the Sprawl Hurts Us All! Report Suburban sprawl development is hazardous to Ontario taxpayers' pocket books and to the environment, according to a new report released by the Sierra Club of Canada today. Costs will be over $70 billion, or more than $14,000 per person, if sprawling housing development continues over the next 25 years in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Sprawl Hurts Us All is a comprehensive and easy to understand resource that will help citizens and local and provincial leaders assess the true costs of sprawl development. The report will be released at 10:00 a.m., Monday, July 28 at the Queen's Park Media Studio. The Sierra Club of Canada's Executive Director Elizabeth May and report author Janet Pelley will be on hand for the report's official release. "As Ontario prepares for an election it's a good time for taxpayers to ask, what happened to Smart Growth," says Elizabeth May. "Sprawl is costing us billions, destroying ecosystems, and increasing smog. It's time to smarten up!" All of the GTA's growth could be accommodated without any new development on the Oak Ridge's Moraine. Yet, current development patterns in the GTA, Golden Horseshoe, Ottawa and beyond are pushing beyond the edges of service and employment areas. Sprawl development, a pattern characterized by strip shopping centers and low-density residential development spread out across the landscape, is gobbling up land at an unprecedented rate: Ontario loses one square kilometre of prime agricultural land every day to the bulldozers. "Ontario's municipalities are taking on deeper debt and headed toward higher taxes if we don't stop sprawl," says Janet Pelley, conservation chair of the GTA group of the Sierra Club. "We can save a lot of money, avoid tax increases, and protect the environment if development takes place in areas that already have services," she adds. The report defines true smart growth as the solution to our growing pains by directing growth into traditional patterns that concentrate homes and jobs in pedestrian-friendly town centres surrounded by green belts. But in order to develop in areas with existing infrastructure and preserve farms and natural areas, the report calls on politicians to: Stop building new highways in Ontario. Freeze new greenfield development projects until the Ontario government passes appropriate smart growth legislation. Protect threatened farmland and green space by establishing urban growth boundaries and promoting conservation easements and purchase of development rights. Freeze water supply projects that would trigger massive suburban sprawl. Require an analysis of the financial, health and environmental costs of proposed developments before permits are issued. Create a 1 million acre greenbelt around the Golden Horseshoe. Abolish the Ontario Municipal Board and replace it with a new appeals board. JANET PELLEY, 416-538-2856 SIERRA CLUB-EASTERN CANADA CHAPTER 24 MERCER ST., SUITE 102 TORONTO, ON M5V 1H3 416-960-9606 Up to Top