THOROLD — The looming 10-year review of Ontario’s Greenbelt is an opportunity to try to have sensitive lands in the area of Lake Gibson and Lake Moodie in Thorold included into the plan, Thorold politicians have heard in a new report.
The province introduced the plan in 2005 with the goal of permanently protecting more than 1.8 million acres of agricultural land, environmentally sensitive land and ecological features across much of the Golden Horseshoe area, where there are huge development pressures as the population in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond continues to swell.
The plan cuts a major swath across areas of north Niagara in Lincoln, Grimsby, Pelham, St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
But the plan didn’t include lands around Lake Gibson and Lake Moodie that some folks in Thorold think should be protected.
Eldon Darbyson, senior planner with the City of Thorold, said in a new report to Thorold city council on Nov. 18 that the city’s Lake Gibson preservation task force has been meeting for more than 10 years to find ways of protecting and preserving the natural heritage features in the land around those two lakes. The land is mostly made up of agricultural and open space lands that currently don’t support urban land uses, he said.
“There has been substantial work done by the task force that demonstrates the importance of protecting these lands, and the expansion of the Greenbelt would enhance this protection,” Darbyson said.
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