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The Boyne Survey will be the site of the third phase of Milton’s residential growth, the previous two having started over the past 10 years. Once all three phases are complete, Halton’s regional staff estimate Milton’s population will be close to 150,000 by 2021.

An intersting story in this weekend’s Champion on Milton’s development from the ‘other’ side. Farmer Hugh Beaty describes the development approaching his Omagh farm as “they have to have someplace to live.”

Yes, it’s hard to believe the next phase of Milton’s development will be creeping into the territory of the small hamlet of Omagh, but Mr. Beaty, it’s not that simple…

Yes, we all knew Milton was primed for a serious population boom as Mississauga and Oakville neared their capacity, but the flipside is that this development comes at the expense of some of Southern Ontario’s and certainly Halton Region’s best farmland.

It makes you wonder about where or when the Town of Milton should draw the line on their expansion plans. We’ll see as time goes on as to whether the tough economic state we’re in affects those decisions as well.

Enjoy, and as always, we invite you to leave your comments below.

From The Milton Canadian Champion:

For 90 years, Hugh Beaty has watched the once small town of Milton inch closer to his farm near Omagh, in the area formerly known as Trafalgar North.

Yet, though he was taken away from his home at times — serving in the Second World War, doing charitable work in northeastern Brazil — he was always able to return to a farming community.

“I’m still living on the farm I was born on,” noted Beaty, whose family name is the namesake of a community and under-construction library branch in the town.

Soon, though, the retired farmer’s 100-acre property on Fourth Line, just south of Britannia Road, will no longer look out onto flat farmland. Instead, it will be face to face with the growing urban area of Milton.

“They’re going to come,” said Beaty of the population increases in Milton. “They have to have someplace to live.”

Where they — up to 50,000 new residents — will live was the subject of a public meeting last week on what is called the Boyne Survey- Education Village secondary plan.

The 950-hectare Boyne lands are bounded by Louis Saint Laurent Boulevard to the north, James Snow Parkway to the east, Britannia Road to the south and Tremaine Road to the west. The Town is also including the 165-hectare area known as the Education Village at the northwest corner of Britannia and Tremaine roads in the secondary plan.

Beaty, along with more than 50 other local residents, attended the session to find out what planning has already been undertaken by the Town in preparation for opening up the area to residential development, perhaps by 2013.

According to the Town’s planning consultant, Liz Howson, much of the background research on the Boyne area has been completed, including sub-watershed studies and retail requirements to service the proposed community.

The Boyne Survey will be the site of the third phase of Milton’s residential growth, the previous two having started over the past 10 years. Once all three phases are complete, Halton’s regional staff estimate Milton’s population will be close to 150,000 by 2021.

What might distinguish the Boyne area compared to the first two growth phases, according to Howson, is a focus on transit-supportive development. This would include higher density development at the intersections of major streets and a possible transit hub located at the Education Village, which is the proposed site for a campus of Wilfrid Laurier University.

Planning has already begun for widening important traffic corridors as well. The Region foresees the widening of Tremaine from Britannia to north of the 401 starting in 2013, with a portion between Derry Road and Main Street in 2011. And the Region will start an environmental assessment for the widening of Britannia between Tremaine and Trafalgar Road this year, said Town planner Bill Mann. Construction on Britannia is also scheduled to begin in 2013.

The next stage in the planning process is the creation of land use options in the Boyne survey area. The options will be the subject of another public workshop Thursday, Mar. 5, before being whittled down to a preferred option to go to Milton council for approval.

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