Hi All,
I am reaching out in hopes of finding reports or suggestions on how to stop prime agricultural land from changing into gravel pits. I live just North East of London, Ontario, and at one end of my road, they are proposing to have an additional 200 acres of prime land turned into aggregate land, and once it goes through, there is no stopping expansions according to the Provincial Planning Act. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Laurie!
Good question! Is this South of you, where there are already some pits just North of Dundas?
One way would be to convince the land owner to do an agricultural conservation easement which would legally bind the land use to agriculture indefinitely, but that’s a tough sell when someone offering you a cheque to turn your land into a gravel pit… Another option is to get a bunch of farmers together who are willing (and able) to invest and you buy the land together as a co-op (or some other legal entity) in order to take the land away from the developer. Lastly, another way could be to approach conservation not-for-profits (like Ducks Unlimited for example) and see if there is any natural habitat value to the land that they think would be worth preserving.
These are all pretty intense ways to try and conserve farm land. You could try some easier things first like talking to your local councillor, MP or MPP, local land and resource conservation authorities or NFP’s. Go to municipal council and make a stink about it and get people to come with you and support your claims. But I’m sure you’ve thought of those already.
Let’s chat about it next time we see each other!
I have moved this post to the newly created “Stewardship” category.
This was an issue in my area and the environmental activists won their case, as far as I know. Please see NZAP.ca. Maybe you can reach out and ask them what their strategy was.