An opinion regarding Sound End development
I don’t know about you, but I fell in love with Guelph for all the reasons one might enjoy a walk in a small forest. The city’s large enough to always explore and find new things, yet small enough that the chance always exists of running into someone you know. It’s beautiful with large expanses of greenery, but not so wild that it’s impossible to navigate or find civilization. As time goes on, however, Guelph seems to represent more of a garden over-crowded with weeds than a majestic woodland.
In the latest episode of “build it and they will come” (Guelph edition), there is an increased push for development in the South End of Guelph, specifically the Clair-Maltby roads area. In fact, according to the Places to Grow legislation, the area south of Clair should be developed post-2020, in order to meet projected employment and population growth targets. While I’ve already given my fair share of complaints about the flawed logic surrounding eternal urban sprawl, there are important facts to consider in this particular situation.
If not offput by the aesthetic assault of cookie-cutter subdivisions and endless strip malls, one might at least concern one’s self with the natural significance of the Clair-Maltby area. According to the Guelph Tribune, the “natural heritage system” contains not only the moraine, but three sub-watershed catchment areas, ecological links for wildlife, “significant woodland features,” and wetland complexes important to natural processes (as well as our overall canopy cover), and important habitats for species protected at all three levels of government.
“Now, Carleigh,” you might say, “those things are all important, yes, but we need to attract more people and we need them to have places to live.”
Well actually, we don’t need those things, because there are more people on this planet today than ever before. It is incredibly arrogant of our species to declare ourselves superior to all other life on earth, and it’s self-deceiving to assume that we must constantly be expanding to “improve” our quality of life for all. By definition, humans are indeed an invasive species. Perhaps our ancestors were friends with the emerald ash borer.
The Places to Grow Act, however flawed it may be, got it right in taking a “build up” and not a “build out,” approach. Of course, this doesn’t satisfy Mayor Cam “Grow Big” Guthrie, who appears troubled by the risk of “the pendulum [swinging] too far” away from the construction of single-family detached homes in Guelph.
Indeed, Guthrie believes young adults (aged 25 to 40) largely dream of “owning their own piece of property with their own backyard,” and, that said, homes are a good rung towards the top of this ladder. Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. Mayor, but my student debt will kill that dream long before bidding wars on resale homes get to it. Not to mention, the prestige of a backyard is lost when it simply overlooks five identical backyards. Neighbourhood barbeque, anyone?
According to The Tribune, the “Clair-Maltby area is one of only two big new areas left for housing development in the city.” What this means to me is that we’ve oversaturated the housing market. What it doesn’t mean to me is that a) we need to re-zone more areas to build more houses; b) we have hit a catastrophic dead end and it’s all downhill from here; or c) we need to build anything else at all.
Guelph is a charming, beautiful city, filled with equally charming and beautiful people. The passion for nature and environmental sustainability has reassured me that some of those in power care about my generation, as we wait backstage for the reins of a very difficult horse to be handed to us. Sadly, we are too preoccupied sustaining ourselves on instant noodles and lab reports, in an attempt to gain a $40,000 piece of paper that leads to zero job opportunities in an economy we didn’t create, to have the time or energy to address these matters.
How refreshing, though, that Guthrie is worried about our dreams. I suppose if climate change doesn’t kill me, I may be able to afford one of those detached homes right in time to retire.