Opponents of a rural housing project say it threatens the entire Niagara Escarpment

A spectacular location in Ontario’s Beaver Valley, it used to be the Talisman Mountain Resort, but hasn’t been open for skiing since the resort went bankrupt in 2011. Now the new owners of this part of the property want to build nearly 400 townhouse and apartment units right here. It would become the single biggest housing development for miles around. It’s not in keeping with why we love the area, but why so many of us have chosen to make this our home. The proposed development is simply outsized for the size of our community. We want this place to be beautiful and we want people to come here, but we don’t want to have it become Brampton. We don’t want to have it become Blue Mountains. We have something special in the Beaver Valley. We need to protect it. If the project gets built as proposed, it would result in more than double the number of homes in the entire nearby town of Kimberly, top to bottom. This makes no sense from like every way you look at it, the only way it makes sense is that it’s going to put some money in some people’s pockets and we’re going to lose way more than we gain 100%. The developers declined CBC’s request for an interview, but in an e-mail a company official said it’s proposal will preserve open space, support the community’s infrastructure needs, provide jobs and contribute to the housing supply in Gray County. Other jurisdictions, provincial government primarily, are pushing housing, housing, housing, and I’m saying not that fast. There are a lot of other considerations to be made before we start slamming 2 by fours in the air and putting houses up. The opponents created this rendering of what the development could look like. They question whether Ontario really needs that kind of housing. In this particular spot, the property falls within the Niagara Escarpment. Much of this 700 kilometer long strip is protected under provincial law, but not the Beaver Valley land. That’s because the abandoned ski resort is classed for recreational use, a designation that allows housing. This would be a permanent scar on what is considered the most important part of the Niagara Escarpment. Steven Griggs leads a group trying to preserve escarpment land throughout this part of Ontario. Our concern is if this development is allowed to proceed, it will make it so much easier for others to to follow. More than 6000 hectares of land across the Niagara scarpment is also designated as recreation use that in theory could be turned into housing. That’s more than double the size of the properties that the Ford government initially removed from the Greenbelt before reversing course. So what the opponents of this project are hoping for now is that the province will step in and protect not only this land, but all the parts of the escarpment that are open to development. With a stroke of a pen, the cabinet could make a minor change to the Niagara Escarpment Plan, which would revert this property and others like it back to what it should have been before it was a a operating ski hill. There’s no sign that cabinet is ready to do that just yet. The minister responsible says the project will require a development permit from the Niagara Escarpment Commission and says officials will ensure that planning policies are followed. Both the municipal and county council’s also have to approve the project before any housing could be built. The developer says their proposal conforms to all zoning and planning rules. Mike Crawley, CBC News, Kimberly, Ontario.