Regional Councillors support Halton Hills Position on GTA West Highway 4.3

Halton Regional Staff Report responding to the GTA West Corridor recommendations was supportive of option 4.2 that brings the proposed 400 series highway north /south beside Heritage Road and then swings into Halton Hills to join the 407 - 401 Interchange. However, the report was ambivalent concerning the proposed additional leg of this highway known as alternative 4.3 that would run east/west somewhere between Georgetown and Steeles Avenue.
In my mind, this was not a time for ambivalence. In consultation with Mayor Bonnette and Regional Councillor Clark Somerville we wrote an amendment to the report that in my opinion was more in keeping with the Region's Official Plan and the newly endorsed Strategic Plan.
The Strategic Plan was crafted with the input of many Halton Residents particularly the Citizen's Refernce Panel. Input from a wide variety of sources confirmed more or less the the vision that was already articulated in the Official Plan.
To quote from the Amendment " the Strategic Plan says "the Region's vision is to preserve for the current and future generations a landscape that is rich, diverse, balanced, productive and sustainable and a society that is economically strong, equitable and caring. The Region must plan for communities where urban sprawl is minimized, where infrastructure is maximized, where natural heritage is protected and natural spaces and farmland are preserved. the overall goal is to enhance the quality of life for all people of Halton today and into the future".

"This vision will be very difficult if not impossible to maintain if alternative 4.3 is approved since the proposed route essentially bisects the agricultural area of halton Hills, thus fragmenting farms and making the industry much more difficult to sustain."

"There is a serious concern that alternative 4.3 will encourage urban sprawl. Measures to protect against urban sprawl were not articulated in the Draft Transportation Development strategy report."

"Alternative 4.3 which bisects the agricultural area south of Georgetown would pose an extremely serious blow to agricultural sustainability in Halton, would threaten the open-space character and landscape heritage of Halton and is therefore contrary to the goals in the official plan and Halton's vision for a sutainable future. For those reasons Halton cannot support alternative route 4.3."

All of the above was incorporated into the recommendation and was endorsed unanimously by the members of the Planning and Public Works Committee. The next hurdle is to have the recommendation endorsed at Regional Council next Wednesday morning.

Gaining unequivical support for the Halton Hills position from Regional Council is absolutely critical to our strategy to stop this highway and get it taken off the map. It is a great relief to have achieved unanimous support at the committee level as it means that we have support from all Halton local municipalities. It gives me confidence that we will also get a ringing endorsement at Council.

It is but one step in our fight against this highway, but it is an important one. I am very grateful to my Regional colleagues for their support today.