Why opponents of a rural housing project believe it threatens the entire Niagara Escarpment 

Opponents of a planned housing project in Ontario’s Beaver Valley are warning that the proposal opens the door to development across much of the protected Niagara Escarpment. 

The project would see 280 townhomes and 90 apartment units built close to the Beaver River near Kimberley, Ont., at the site of the former Talisman Mountain Resort, about 150 kilometres northwest of Toronto.

The Talisman property falls within the Niagara Escarpment biosphere, a 725-kilometre long stretch of land that winds from Niagara Falls to the Bruce Peninsula. 

Stephen Griggs, chair of the Escarpment Corridor Alliance, a non-profit preservation group, says approval of the project would boost the likelihood of developers building housing on other escarpment properties with the same status as the Talisman lands. 

“Our concern is if this development is allowed to proceed, it will make it so much easier for others to follow,” Griggs said in an interview.  

“We are tremendously concerned with the proposal,” said Griggs. “The viewscape of the heart of the Beaver Valley, which is the heart of the Niagara Escarpment, would be destroyed forever.” 

WATCH | Why critics don’t want the abandoned resort to become a major housing development: 

There’s a plan to build hundreds of townhouses and apartment units in Ontario’s rural Beaver Valley. The plan is not only raising controversy among locals, it’s also sparking fears that it could open the door to development across much of the Niagara Escarpment. And now there are calls for the provincial government to step in. Senior reporter Mike Crawley has the exclusive story.

Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment Plan has governed land use across the area since its creation by the province in 1985. While the plan protects much of the escarpment, development is permitted in sections classed as recreational use. That includes the former Talisman property, which hasn’t operated as a ski resort since 2011. 

There are 34 properties across the escarpment covering more than 6,600 hectares designated as recreational use that could be developed in the same way, according to research by the Escarpment Corridor Alliance. 

That’s more than twice the size of the lands that Premier Doug Ford’s government opened up for development in Ontario’s Greenbelt, before scrapping the plan in the face of public opposition. 

“This is a very serious issue for the province and one that the provincial government should be focused on,” said Griggs.

The company behind the Talisman project, Beaver Valley Development Group, submitted a detailed plan to Grey County in mid-April. 

CBC News asked company officials for an interview. In an emailed statement, Paul Mondell, vice-president of development and planning, said the proposal “will create and preserve significant open space on the majority of our land, support and enhance infrastructure needs of the community, provide new employment opportunities and in a small part contribute to the much needed housing supply for all of Grey County.”  

Beaver Valley Development Group’s website describes the homes as “a mix of housing choices that will appeal to both end users that want to live and play in the area and investor units, with a professionally managed rental program.”

The company says their project will “revitalize” the Beaver Valley. 

‘We need to protect it’

However, some local residents believe the scale of the project is far too big for the rural area. 

“We have something special in the Beaver Valley and we need to protect it,” said Erica Ferguson, who grew up in the area and works as a family doctor. 

“We don’t want to have it become Brampton. We don’t want to have it become [the town of] Blue Mountains,” she said.

The proposal for 370 housing units would instantly triple the number of homes in the town of Kimberley and make for the largest single subdivision across Grey Highlands, a municipality of only 4,100 households, according to census data. 

“Top to bottom, this makes no sense,” said Ferguson in an interview. “The only way it makes sense is it’s going to put some money in some people’s pockets and we’re going to lose way more than we gain.” 

Land sold for $2.5M

The Municipality of Grey Highlands, which became the owner of the Talisman lands after the resort went bankrupt, sold a two-parcel package totalling 55 hectares to private equity firm Westway Capital Inc. in 2022 for $2.5 million. 

Griggs criticizes the sale as a “sweetheart deal.”  The price was $275,000 less than an offer made by the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, a land-preservation charity. 

The two parcels are above and below the former ski runs. Beaver Valley Development Group’s current proposal is for the lower parcel, and the company hasn’t made public its plans for the upper portion, which borders on the Bruce Trail along the ridge of the escarpment. 

Joel Loughead, a Grey Highlands councillor who was elected after the land sale and lives near the Talisman lands, says there’s “a lot of resistance” to the project, particularly among people who live in and around Kimberley. 

“The proposed development is simply outsized for the size of our community,” Loughead said in an interview. “It’s not in keeping with why we love the area, why so many of us have chosen to make this our home.”  

The development proposal still requires approval by the councils of both Grey County and the Municipality of Grey Highlands, as well as the Niagara Escarpment Commission — the provincial agency that manages the escarpment plan. 

“Certainly there is a desire from some councillors and some staff and maybe even some residents to develop, but in my experience and among who I’m talking to, it’s not the majority opinion,” said Loughead. 

“Most people here [in the Beaver Valley] especially understand that this is not a place that should be developed to this capacity,” he said.  

Developer says plan complies with zoning rules

Beaver Valley Development Group says the subdivision proposal it’s submitted to Grey County is in compliance with current zoning and planning rules and says 75 per cent of the property cannot be developed.

Grey County Warden Brian Milne, who leads the council made up of the mayors and deputy mayors of the nine municipalities in the county, says the property’s zoning has long allowed for housing.  

“So really it’s not a question of will there be development, it’s more a question of what will the development look like should it go ahead,” Milne said in an interview. 

“I don’t think more people coming [to live in the area] in itself is a problem. It’s just a matter of making sure that the impacts are mitigated appropriately,” he said.

There’s a long way to go before Grey County council will make any decision on the subdivision proposal, and public hearings will be held before that, said Milne.  

“We’re not going to skip any steps just because it’s housing,” he said. 

Milne says he has concerns about what he called the provincial government’s “singular focus” on getting housing built. 

“I’m saying, ‘Not that fast.’ There are a lot of other considerations to be made before we start slamming two-by-fours in the air and putting houses up,” said Milne. 

Griggs, of the Escarpment Corridor Alliance, says this project wouldn’t create the kind of homes needed to tackle Ontario’s housing crisis. 

“It’s clearly counter to the Niagara Escarpment Commission’s objectives and it certainly does not fulfil any of the objectives of the provincial government around affordable housing,” Griggs said.

Province has power to halt project

He and other project opponents are asking the province to step in to stop the development before it gets the necessary approvals to start construction.  

“With a stroke of a pen, the cabinet could make a minor change to the Niagara Escarpment Plan, which would revert this property and others like it back to what it should have been, before it was an operating ski hill,” said Griggs. 

There’s no sign that Ford’s cabinet is willing to make that change just yet.

Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Graydon Smith says the proposal will require a development permit from the Niagara Escarpment Commission, which he oversees. 

“Ministry officials will continue to work closely with the relevant municipalities and partner authorities to ensure that the policies of the Niagara Escarpment Plan are duly considered during the review process,” Smith said in a statement to CBC News.

Rob Leverty, who has lived on a farm in the area for 50 years, calls the 1985 establishment of the Niagara Escarpment Plan a pivotal moment for Ontario, as it stopped proposed condominium development that he says “would have wrecked” the Beaver Valley. 

Leverty, president of the Niagara Escarpment Foundation, says the proposal for the Talisman land presents another pivotal moment, this time to the Ford government. 

“This will not be a good place to live if this development goes through and it won’t be a good place for the wildlife that are coming here either,” Leverty said in an interview.

“If we can’t save this, then we’re in serious, serious trouble,” he said.