New updated content: 2018-05-28 11:50:12

April 24

Paul was unable to attend, along with one other member, and Nick Stow will arrange to meet individually with him. We learned at the May 4 OMB pre-hearing conference that the appeal of OPA 179, by which the Significant Woodland Policy was adopted, will not be heard until 2019. As a result, the output of the Working Group will likely not be considered until the start of the new term of Council in 2019.

New updated content: 2018-09-24 14:18:31

Significant Woodland Guidelines – draft

City staff have provided a first draft of guidelines for implementing the Significant Woodland Policy. These reflect the discussions over the last year of a working group of stakeholders, which included the GA. Protection of peri-urban woodlots will be included in the review of the urban trees by-laws. Paul has reviewed and submitted comments by the September 21 deadline set by the City.

Action: Paul will circulate the draft report.

New updated content: 2018-10-20 14:33:13

Significant Woodland Guidelines – final draft

 Paul gave a presentation on the final draft of the Significant Woodland Policy guidelines. He explained the different criteria for designating significant woodlands in the urban and rural areas of the city. Once identified as significant, any development in or around these urban woodlands must take into account the ecological, economic and social benefits on a no net loss basis. The guidelines provide a detailed methodology for evaluating these benefits.

Action: Paul to circulate the final draft guidelines.

New updated content: 2018-12-17 15:13:42

Paul reported on the feedback provided by the GA to final draft version of the guidelines for the implementation of this policy. As we have participated as a member of the working group tasked with the development of these guidelines, most of our input was already reflected in the final draft. However, there was a final point regarding the size threshold for woodlots in the rural area that we wished to make. Our input can be found here.

New updated content: 2019-02-25 08:51:32

Significant Woodland Policy, guidelines and appeal settlement

The final version of the Guidelines for the application the Significant Woodland Policy was published by the City on February 14, along with a staff report that included a proposed settlement agreement with the parties who had appealed the Policy (OPA179). This was to be tabled at Planning Committee on February 28. The main concession was to raise the age criterion at which urban woodlands of 0.8 ha or larger would be considered significant from 40 years old to 60 years old. We had circulated a <note> to members ahead of the meeting with an analysis of the proposal and what position we should take in response. After a lively discussion, we agreed to make these additional demands: 1) that the impact of changing the criterion from 40 years to 60 years be quantified in terms of how much potential loss of greenspace this might represent. 2) to clarify the status of peri-urban lands, which the staff report indicated would not be covered by the Policy; 3) to press for the commitment previously made to ensure that tree protection in the peri-urban area would be covered in the Tree Conservation By-law; 4) to seek an explanation for the assumption that the target should be 16% to 20% greenspace in newly developed urban expansion areas; and 5) to dispute the appropriateness under the PPS of allowing compensation measure offsets in the interpretation of “no negative impact”.

Action : Paul to prepare comments for submission at the February 28 Planning Committee.

New updated content: 2019-03-25 09:12:01

Approval of the Significant Woodland Policy and guidelines

Council approved on March 6 the Significant Woodland Policy guidelines, including changes to the Policy as part of the settlement of the appeals of OPA 179. We had contributed significantly to the development of the Guidelines and supported their adoption at Committee. We were less pleased regarding the settlement, which change the age criterion in the Policy from 40 to 60 years. We have no data on the impact of this change in terms of the amount of urban woodlands that could be denied protection.