Near the end of May, our community won an enormous victory. Yet the Record's editorial board and one of its columnists are determined to take victory and declare defeat.

The Region of Waterloo finally reached a good deal with the handful of greenfield developers who were using the Ontario Municipal Board to fight local plans for smart growth.

The region is working to meet housing needs while protecting farmland and our urban townships, and creating more livable urban neighbourhoods. To meet these goals, the region determined that 85 hectares of new land should be converted for development. Those developers wanted 1,053 hectares, based on outdated models for housing demand. The municipal board sided with the developers.

With enormous local support, the region rightly fought the decision in court. The provincial government agreed and joined the region's fight. Against this backdrop, the region was able reach a deal that converts only 255 hectares to settle this dispute.

They also reached a deal in a different dispute about how to accommodate recent higher population growth projections, which will convert about 200 hectares more by 2019.

But the big win was one that got little attention: in the future, the region's methodology for determining how much agricultural land to develop will be used. So even the greenfield developers have agreed that the region's approach should be used moving forward.

Everyone has agreed, it seems, except for some at The Record. Jeff Outhit thinks "taxpayers got burned" because of legal costs. He believes the region should have "learn(ed) from defeat instead of fighting it" and that support for smart growth is based on "ideology."

Outhit describes greenfield sites as "vacant land." Here in Waterloo Region, most of us call such places prime farmland. We know we must protect our agricultural resources, heritage and communities.

We also have to think of taxpayers, as Outhit suggests. More urban sprawl means more infrastructure and services must be provided to outlying areas with fewer people to pay for them, raising property taxes for everyone for decades to come. Smart growth is the fiscally responsible option.

The Record's editorial board thinks more land opened to development is better, since they fear that responsible growth management will raise prices for single-detached homes, which they think has happened in the Greater Toronto Area.

But high prices in Toronto aren't caused by growth management. As Toronto's chief planner wrote in the Toronto Star in March, there's huge variation in housing prices in the GTA. In Oshawa and Brock township, the average single-detached home costs between $250,000 and $275,000, compared with $1.4 million in central areas of the City of Toronto.

If actual shortages were the problem, prices in peripheral areas would be driven up as well. But in reality, it's prices for houses in walkable core areas that are skyrocketing.

What homebuyers are starting to realize is that urban sprawl has costs for them personally. Many homebuyers are willing to pay more to live in complete, central communities where they don't sacrifice so much money and time commuting, and where they can enjoy easy access to the amenities that have made living in cities so popular.

The region's approach accounts for these changing desires. Whether you're looking for a new single-detached home on the periphery, or would rather live in a walkable neighbourhood close to the core, the region's plans support a diverse mix of housing and real housing choice.

Once approved by the Ontario Municipal Board, this deal will allow our community to move forward in the right direction.

Our regional and provincial governments deserve our thanks for persevering, and our congratulations on this collective victory.

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