407 GOLDEN CORRIDOR COULD SAVE GREENBELT

ALTERNATIVE TO HWY. 413 RIGHT IN OUR BACKYARD, WRITES PETER MIASEK

The debate over expanding the Greater Toronto urban footprint into prime agricultural land and into the Greenbelt continues unabated.

A key part of this expansion is Ontario's controversial plan to construct Hwy. 413.

The province justifies these plans due to anticipated large population increases in the area, and the need to provide transportation infrastructure for people and goods.

There is a much better solution, originally proposed by York Regional Councillor Jim Jones of Markham.

The solution is right in our backyard — the Hwy. 407 corridor. This wide corridor is almost entirely provincially owned and is occupied by Hwy. 407, several high voltage transmission lines, stormwater ponds and underground pipelines.

The 407 solution has several components:

• Use provincial funds to provide a toll discount for trucks on the 407, rather than build the 413. This idea was originally recommended by an expert panel convened by the previous provincial government. The 407 is more conveniently located for more freight truck movement.

• Bury the high voltage lines in the corridor to open up two thousand hectares of provincially owned developable land in the 102 kilometres between Milton and Oshawa. There are many examples across the world where such lines are located in tunnels or duct banks.

Undergrounding the lines also increases safety and reduces electromagnetic fields. Instead of a hydro corridor 200-metreswide, there would then be a tunnel less than 10 metres wide. We estimate that capital costs to bury the lines to be $5 billion.

• Construct a series of new, complete communities across the corridor at key arterial road and transit intersection points, such as with GO Transit, TTC subway or LRT and BRT. Our conceptual plan suggests about 40 communities, holding over one million people. These communities would be largely self-sufficient, with jobs, commercial uses and public amenities, including parkland linkages to adjacent communities.

• Link the communities to each other with a new crosstown higher-order transit line running in the 407 transitway protected corridor, connecting to the balance of the radial rapid transit network. The province has already proposed this East-West Cross-Regional Connector in its recently released Greater Golden Horseshoe Transportation Plan.

This 407 solution preserves precious agricultural, greenbelt and natural lands, reduces the pressure for urban sprawl, improves our transit network and adds billions to provincial coffers. It warrants a serious study.