[Gat-Train]

Originally Posted by CityTech

Rather than making a Greenbelt 2, I'd actually prefer a plan to replace the existing Greenbelt with a Greenbelt 2 through land swaps.

In the west, sell off the land between Barrhaven/Kanata and Nepean, and use the money to buy up all the land separating Barrhaven & Kanata from Richmond, Manotick, and Carp for a new Greenbelt. That way, we build up the suburbs to be closer to each other instead of extending further outwards. There's so much land in this part of the Greenbelt that it could basically mean the southern and western limits of the urban boundary are not extended again for a century or more.

In the south and the east, however, this is harder to do because much of the Greenbelt lands are undevelopable anyway (due to the airport exclusion zone and Mer Bleue). However, some smaller scale swaps might be possible. In the east, sell off the Greenbelt lands north of the 174 and use the money to extend the Greenbelt to include some of the rural areas between Orleans and Navan. (That actually helps Mer Bleue by keeping Orleans further away from it). In the south, sell off the area between Blossom Park and Findlay Creek and use the money to buy up the land between Findlay Creek/Riverside South and Greely.

Because the sold off Greenbelt land would be more valuable than the land making up the new Greenbelt 2, we could actually have a net increase in the amount of protected land. And we could trade in simple farmland for the opportunity to protect lands like the wetlands between Kanata and Carp. Not to mention, makes the city grow closer together instead of further apart. Win-win-win.

I don't like the idea of giving up existing greenbelt, with the possible exception of the area around Eagleson and Moodie, which is ripe for some TOD following the LRT extensions. Also the area around Hurdman needs development.