DEVELOPMENT

Designation urged for contested wetland

Patrick Maloney The London Free Press August 31, 2009

A decade after it first began, a fight between a London neighbourhood and a developer over a north-end wetland returns to city hall today. Stan Brown, president of the Stoneybrook Heights-Uplands Ratepayers Association, hopes a city staff recommendation to designate the wetland, behind, an environmentally sensitive area, will help their case against developer Sifton Properties. Sifton wants to bring services across the wetland to two homes.

Politicians will consider a staff report recommending the UWO/Gibbons vegetation patch north of Fanshawe Park Rd. as an environmentally significant area -- a move the Stoneybrook Heights-Uplands Ratepayers Association hopes will help stop construction on the land.

"It's an absolutely unique area that needs to be protected," said Gloria McGinn-McTeer, past president of the neighbourhood group. "If we aren't protecting an environmentally sensitive area in the 21st century, what's the future of urban forests and wetlands?"

At issue is the proposed construction by Sifton Properties of two estate homes on land west of Stoneybrook Heights and surrounded by the wetland. Building the homes requires a 60-metre laneway and water and sewer pipes through the wetland. Sifton has said it's worked hard to minimize any toll on the wetland. The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has agreed. But last September, city council turn down Sifton's plans. The matter was appealed to the OMB, which will hold a hearing in early October.

Coun. Nancy Branscombe, chair of council's planning committee, said she's confident the staff report will be accepted unanimously, as it has been by different committees and differnt times during the years. "I don't think we have an option," Branscombe said. "Not every piece of land in the city should be developed, especially when it's wetland or woodland. There's precious little of it left. It's our duty to protect it." The neighbourhood group hopes if council adopts the staff recommendation to amend the city's official plan and designate the land environmentally significant, it will strengthen their case before the OMB. After a decade of fighting the plan, the Stoneybrook Heights residents say they won't let up.

The group's president, Stan Brown, says they are prepared to spend as much as $50,000 to cover legal fees and other expenses.

Patrick Maloney is a Free Press reporter.