Regional News
November 06, 2008 11:14 PM, By: David Fleischer, www.yorkregion.com

Hill lands preserved for us all

York Region is getting a little greener, thanks to people such as Ethel Perryman.

Last week, she sold 83 acres of her Richmond Hill farm to the region and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, ensuring it will be preserved as greenspace.

“I know my husband would have loved it because he loved the land,” she said.

Mrs. Perryman and her husband, Lloyd, bought the land on Leslie Street, south of Stouffville Road, in 1971, on which they began growing canola.

They have lived there since 1985, though Mr. Perryman died two years ago.

A deal to sell the 96 acres for $8.5 million in 1989 fell through.

That sale price of 20 years ago shows what a bargain taxpayers are getting, buying 83 acres at $2.3 million.

Mrs. Perryman will keep about 12 acres.

The province’s Greenbelt legislation means the land cannot be developed, but, despite being approached by developers over the years to let it go, preserving it was always important to Mrs. Perryman.

“The land is precious and I know it’s been violated every which way,” she said.

In September, regional council approved contributing more than $750,000 to buy the land, joining the authority, the Town of Richmond Hill and the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation in the effort. The money comes from a reserve fund designed to help acquire lands for the greening of the region.

“We’re trying to leverage the contribution of conservation lands,” the region’s forestry manager, Ian Buchanan, said.

Potential acquisitions are rated on various factors and staff described the Perryman lands as integral to the region’s environmental strategy and “a key acquisition given the location on the Oak Ridges Moraine”.

If that was not enough to make it a sure thing, the fact it is adjacent to Phyllis Rawlinson Park sealed the deal.

As the Perryman property is reforested, it will effectively double the size of the park, which is designed for passive uses, such as hiking.

The purchase is the result of nearly four years of negotiations and while you might think local landowners want to squeeze every cent out of their increasingly valuable land rather than see it preserved, that’s not always the case.

“I believe there are many more people out there interested in the long-term environmental legacy of their land than people expect,” Mr. Buchanan said.

Since implementing its strategy for acquiring green lands in 2001, the region has amassed 1,300 acres on 23 properties, at a cost of more than $36 million.

Who paid what

Sharing the cost of buying 83 acres for greenspace

$762,000 - City of Toronto
$762,000 - York Region
$679,333 - Town of Richmond Hill
$82,667 - Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation

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