Grey County has approved moving forward with a project to create localized green development standards.
At its meeting on Jan. 25, county council approved a staff report to move forward with an agreement with the federal government for $445,600 in grant funding for a project to develop localized green development standards.
Grey County is working in collaboration with Dufferin and Wellington counties to create the green standards. Green development standards are municipal guidelines put in place to encourage environmentally, socially and economically sustainable building designs. The purpose of this project is to create unified standards across three counties and 24 lower tier municipalities.
Benefits of the standards include: lower greenhouse gas emissions, more efficient energy usage and innovation in the housing and development sectors. Creating green development standards is one of the five key next steps in Grey County’s climate action plan.
“It will really help the development industry adapt to this new approach,” said Rebecca Danard, the county’s climate change initiatives manager.
The project will include consultations with the public, staff of local municipalities and the development industry, training and certification opportunities for municipal staff, the development industry, tradespeople, students and educations and compilation into a “toolkit” of the available resources into plans and strategies, playbooks, tools and forums, recorded webinars.
Members of county council had plenty of questions about the project.
Chatsworth Mayor Scott Mackey wondered why the federal and provincial levels of government weren’t driving this process.
“Why isn’t this a provincial or federal initiative?” Mackey asked, noting that he thought it should be bigger than three counties. “It feels piecemeal. If we’re going above and beyond the building code, are we going to be imposing on our local builders additional requirements?”
Danard explained that the provincial government plans to pursue green development standards in the future.
“We’re basically getting ahead of the game,” she said. “It’s better to have a plan and then we’re not trying to fit ourselves into a box that wasn’t designed for us.”
Deputy CAO Randy Schezer added that it was better to create a local set of standards rather than have them imposed.
“We also want to make sure it works for Grey County,” said Scherzer. “We want to create standards that will work for our counties, our municipalities and our builders.”
The Blue Mountains Mayor Andrea Matrosovs said green development standards are a goal in her community’s sustainability plan and she supported a county-wide collaborative approach.
“It made much more sense to work on the county level,” said Matrosovs, who said working ahead of the game will put the county in a great position. “Then we can be that voice at the table.”
Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy said developers don’t care how much it costs a person to heat their home after they build the home. They are about their profits and expressed concerns the county could drive away development opportunities with more regulations.
“(Developers) are going to go where it’s cheaper. We’ve got to be careful what we add for them,” said Boddy.
