Caledon announces protection of more than 370 acres of greenbelt

October 2, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Caledon has secured 379.87 acres of provincially designated greenbelt lands for public ownership.

These provincially designated Greenbelt lands are conveyed by 11 private landowners.

“This initiative represents one of the most significant expansions of protected green space in Caledon’s history,” said Mayor Annette Groves. “These parcels, located within Ontario’s Greenbelt, will be permanently protected from development and will be stewarded by the Town for ecological conservation, public recreation and long-term community benefit. This is a strong example of how the Town can take strategic action to proactively secure and protect greenbelt land.”

Mayor Groves said that by protecting these lands, they are preserving ecosystems and natural heritage while ensuring the lands remain protected, accessible and beneficial for generations to come.

The lands will provide the opportunity for the Town to meet growing needs for outdoor recreation, parkland and trail development.

It will also be integrated into current strategic planning initiatives, such as the Community Facility Needs Assessment and the Active Transportation Plan.

Groves shared that following Bill 23, the Town was left with a deficit in parkland, and so if there are opportunities to acquire land to help provide recreation facilities, they will continue to explore all opportunities to do so.

She shared that the process took about a year, but noted it would hopefully be a shorter process from now on.

“This is the first of many to come,” said Mayor Groves.

Through the needs assessment project, the Town will identify the needs and potentially determine the future use of the land.

“We want to protect those lands. We don’t want to have anything and we don’t want to risk an opportunity of having anything built on those lands, and I see this as a great opportunity to provide recreational facilities and trails. At the end of the day, we want to keep people healthy. We want to provide services for these residents that will be moving into our community,” said Mayor Groves.

She added they don’t want people to just move into a house, but into a community.

“They need to move into a community, and a community that is going to be built with all the amenities that they need. Parks, trails, recreation is extremely important,” said Groves.

“We want to make sure that when these communities are built, we have sufficient recreation for these children and their families. This way they move into a neighborhood, a community, and not just move into a home.”

These lands will be part of future developments.

It was asked why these landowners would convey these lands.

“Ultimately, it’s land that they can’t do anything with because it is protected. It’s not like they’re giving us something that they can make millions of dollars off. But, what they also recognize is that there are community benefits that, as a municipality, we can do more with these lands than a private landowner because we can do some of those passive recreation things, the trails and some of those more passive parks,” said Regional Councillor Mario Russo for Wards 4, 5 and 6 afterward.

The acres will be located in Wards 2, 3, 5, and 6.

Councillor Cosimo Napoli for Ward 6 shared that this initiative allows them to protect these lands.

“It ensures, first of all, that they’re protected, and second of all, that we now have the ability to provide our community with complete communities by having more parks and more trails,” said Councillor Napoli. “In Caledon here, we have the best of both communities. We have a beautiful rural area, and then we have the urban areas. Not too many communities can actually say that.”

Councillor Russo said that he looks forward to the ability to integrate parks and trailways that connect the northern components of Bolton to the south, “essentially, we want a network that connects the entire town.”

“There’s going to be some lands that are very environmentally sensitive that can’t be crossed.

But the beauty of it is that, number one, we protect it in perpetuity for that conservation component, but we also passively can use it for greater goals as we move forward. We now have somewhat of a blank slate in certain areas that we can actually plan properly so that we’re not left at a deficit down the road.”

Councillor Russo shared that many residents have voiced concerns regarding conservation, and Caledon being the “greenest community.”

“We will now be the stewards of those lands so we can protect it when it’s very sensitive, and we can utilize them when there’s that ability to utilize them,” said Councillor Russo. “We’re increasing the recreation component, but also increasing the protection that’s there for our community.”