Province blocked mayor's rezoning vote

Letter from housing minister said 12 parcels of land were to be protected as part of Highway 413

- NOOR JAVED AND DIANA ZLOMISLIC

Caledon Mayor Annette Groves said she cancelled a vote on the rezoning of 12 parcels of land in her municipality because she “listened to our residents and stakeholders.” But some councillors say a cease and desist letter from the province is the real reason for the backtrack.

A GTA mayor’s attempt to use “strong mayor” powers to fasttrack thousands of hectares of development in her municipality was cut short after the province warned that half the proposed rezoning approvals lay along the future route of Highway 413.

Caledon Mayor Annette Groves had planned this week to force council to vote to rezone 12 parcels of land at once along the interchanges of the contentious 60-kilometre highway — also referred to as GTA West — that will connect Vaughan to Milton via Caledon.

The move — which faced massive protests from residents — would have converted agricultural and environmentally sensitive land to open-ended zoning for a range of uses from supermarkets to shopping centres to highrises to sprawling single-family mansions.

It would also have approved zoning for some 35,000 new homes, nearly triple the number required to meet Caledon’s provincial housing pledge.

Early Friday evening — a day after hundreds of residents attended a heated town hall meeting to voice concerns — Groves announced in an Instagram post that the “12 rezoning items have been removed from the agenda.”

She said the residents’ voices had “been heard and concerns respected.”