NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE COUNTY GREENBELT COALITION
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MIDHURST - Through a petition released by Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition (SCGC) and sent formally to the County of Simcoe, hundreds of residents have expressed their desire to stop sprawl and build healthy, sustainable communities across the region.
Currently, the County of Simcoe is completing the first stage of public consultation within the Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) process, which will decide how and where the county will accommodate an additional 198,000 people by 2051. The public has until Nov. 12 to submit concerns and comments that will be considered in this process.
Margaret Prophet, executive director of SCGC says the groups she works with and represents are tired of seeing growth unnecessarily remove farmland and greenspaces which has not helped the affordability of the communities at all.
“What is clear is that sprawl is very costly for municipalities and for residents in reducing quality of life and affordability. So while the county is considering how it should develop communities, we wanted to ensure that the future health and affordability of Simcoe County is top of mind. With the most severe climate impacts still to come for this region, now is the time to move toward healthier, more sustainable communities, not just more of the same.”
The petition outlines how the 15-minute community is a vision that the county should move toward. Fifteen-minute communities aim to allow residents to access all of their essential needs by walking no more than 15 minutes. This model of development has been shown across Canada and globally to be not only more environmentally friendly, but also less costly for governments and more healthy and affordable for residents.
Prophet continues: “Of course, we can’t make these changes overnight, but we can start to make decisions today that can get us closer to the communities that are more affordable and accessible. The County is hard-baking in decisions that will be with us for the next 30 years which coincides with our 2050 net zero targets. We can’t afford to get this wrong.”
You can learn how to get more involved with the MCR process and have your say via SCGC’s website.
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