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OTTAWA – The fight over wetlands designations on privately-owned land in the city is on again after the provincial natural resources ministry tagged 9,000 acres (3,600 hectares) as new wetland last week.
This affects about 1,500 property owners across the city, almost all in rural areas. A large proportion of the properties are southwest of Stittsville, an area represented by Rideau-Goulbourn Councillor Glenn Brooks, where the battle over wetland designations has been centered since 2004.
Goulbourn Landowners Group president Terry Hale said he and many others in the area thought this issue was put to bed two years ago by a deal brokered with the city, and Monday night at a meeting of his board, he suggested legal action against the city and the province.
“This was supposed to have been a done deal,” said Mr. Hale, a farmer who owns 30 acres (12 hectares) that have been designated wetland. “I see no point in negotiating anymore because the deal was reneged on. The majority of pieces we are talking about don’t even have any water on them.
“I drive on this land every day. I’m farming it. That’s what’s so annoying about this.”
Mr. Brooks said he’s angry over the situation and he’ll be asking his fellow councillors to take a tough stance against the province. Mr. Brooks said the landowners have every right to oppose the designations under the current rules.
He said a wetland designation restricts land use to whatever is currently being done on the land.
“You get hit every which way,” he said. “You can’t develop it or use it in a new way, it’s devalued, and there’s no compensation.”
Mr. Brooks said it also puts the city in a tough spot. This is because the ministry makes the designations, but, under provincial law, it’s up to the city to enforce the land-use restriction by protecting designated wetlands in its official plan. Mr. Brooks said when the city was informed about the designations last week, the city’s legal staff was asked what the municipality’s chances of fighting the designations are.
” ‘Slim to none and slim just left the building’ was the answer,” Mr. Brooks said. “The ministry doesn’t even inform the residents. We have to do that too.”
No one from the ministry office could be reached to comment on the designations Monday after the city announced them in a press release clearly designed to show the municipality is caught in the middle.
“It is important that residents be aware that it is not the city who is deciding which properties should receive this designation – it’s the provincial government,” Cumberland Councillor Rob Jellett, chair of city council’s agriculture and rural affairs committee said in the release. “We believe that it is important to share as much information about the MNR actions as possible with our residents.”
The release went on to say “in order to comply with provincial policy, city staff will review the mapping over the summer and prepare an amendment to the official plan for public review in the fall.”
“As the MNR has not directly notified property owners of the mapping updates, we feel it is important that residents be made aware of these changes that could affect their property,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien in a statement.
Indeed, the city has prepared and mailed an information package to all residents whose property is within or adjacent to newly identified wetlands and is planning to hold public meetings on the issue later this year.
And if the past is any indication of the future, the dispute could get nasty.
In 2004, the ministry designated about 265 hectares in the Goulbourn area as wetland. Studies showed years of poor drainage decisions caused water from one drainage area to flow into another, which had an inadequate drainage system.
This created standing surface water on many properties and left the land within the provincial definition of wetland.
Designating the area as wetland angered property owners, who were concerned about plummeting property values and limited land-use options. Some even bulldozed parts of their own properties in an attempt to avoid the designation.
The fighting died in the summer of 2006 when the city negotiated a deal with the landowners. Under the deal, a better drainage system was supposed to be developed for the area; the city was supposed to see whether property values in the area had taken a dive, and if so, come up with a way to compensate the landowners.
It’s this deal, Mr. Hale said, the city has backed out of.
“This was supposed to be resolved, and here we are again,” he said. “You can see why people are angry.”
(C) Ottawa Citizen