The Rural Voice, 1990-05, Page 38THE LAND &
GreyCounty ITS FUTURE
PART II
THE GREY ASSOCIATION FOR
DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH
by Cathy Laird
The lines continue to be drawn in the battle
over the land use issue in Grey County. The first
ratepayers' group to come forward and take a
public stand was the Grey Association for Better
Planning (GABP), which formed last November
to protest the number and type of rural severances
being granted in the county.
One specific concern of GABP is the proposal
for a subdivision development, known as Syden-
ham Mills, near Rockford. Complaints about the
proposal prompted the involvement of the provin-
cial environment ministry's Environmental
Assessment Advisory Committee (EAAC), which
held three public meetings in January. The results
of these meetings are being made available in a
Clay Schwegler (front), chairperson of GDG,
and Norman Seabrook, vice-president. "The
GDG group started as a petition supporting
our county politicians and policies," says
Seabrook. "Then the need to form a full-
blown ratepayers group became apparent."
4 -4 -,
MONEY AND THE PRESERVATION OF LAND
has been working with Professor Hilts.
The Natural Heritage Stewardship
Award program involves no money, in
fact, but is based on a verbal commit-
ment between a landowner and the
Natural Heritage League. It operates
along the Niagara Escarpment, for
example.
The other main provision in
Ontario uses the tax system. Rebates
are offered for agricultural land, man-
aged forests, and conservation land.
Help also comes through various
programs offered by the Ministry of
Natural Resources, notes Moull, from
forestry management assistance to the
Wildlife Habitat Securement Program.
South of the border there are more
options. Conservation easements, for
example, are legal documents drawn
up between a landowner and an ease-
ment holder. The holder of the ease-
ment compensates the landowner (the
owner of a woodlot, for example,
would be compensated for the value
of the lumber from it).
In the U.S., conservation ease-
ments amounting to millions of acres
are held by private, non-profit land
trusts, and an individual who donates
an easement gets an income tax de-
duction. In Ontario, however, Moull
says, Revenue Canada and provincial
statutes have restricted the holding of
easements.
Land trusts in the U.S., Moull
says, are usually regional organiza-
tions which operate largely through
donations. There is also a central
clearing house called the Land Trust
Alliance. Land trusts have been
successful in the U.S., adds George
Penfold of Guelph's School of Rural
Planning, because "there's an organ-
izational structure that can make it
work."
Purchase and sale -back agreements
are another American technique. A
farmer who wants to sell to a develop-
er would arrange to have part of his
land severed, but restrictions would be
put on the rest of the property in
perpetuity.
Penfold adds that the purchase of
development rights is most often used
in situations where it's worth investing
public money. If, for example, you
didn't want Toronto to grow north, he
says, development rights on the farm
land to the north could be purchased.°
34 THE RURAL VOICE