City wants tract south of Stittsville rezoned as wetland

The City of Ottawa says the return of beavers to the Ottawa Valley helped expand a rural wetland south of Stittsville, and now that wetland needs to be officially protected.

City council will be asked next week to add 318hectares to the Goulbourn wetland mostly centred around Flewellyn Road something it's been considering since 2005.

That should end a "planning and regulatory limbo", city planner Nick Stowe said. Ontariolabelled the areas significant wetland back then, but the city held off on its complementary zoning for years as it tried to deal withresident frustrations.

Land owners have disputed that their propertiesaretrue wetland. They blamenearby quarries for pumping out water and making their propertieswetter. Some blame poor drainage after amalgamation. Others blame the widening of Highway 7.

Leave it to beavers

• Landlocked: Farmers running out of options as wetlands designation looms

But city staff told the rural and agricultural affairs committee onThursday that, after a 2016 study by Dillon Consulting, they havenow concluded the string of wetlandsexpanded naturally.

Beavers played a big role in returning the area to wetland, Stow told the committee Thursday. He showed aerial photos of the most controversial areas, when they were farmland in1976, and again in 1999, when they'd shifted towetland dotted bya chain of beaver dams.

"Beavers were basically trapped out of the Ottawa valley almost 250 years ago, however by 1999 they had recolonized the area," said Stow.

Farmers unconvinced

Robin Tilgner and her husbandownnearly 40 hectares on Flewellyn Road.

"Our families have been there since the 1950s, sowe really have had a chance to watch agricultural land become increasingly wet and watching the trees die."

She's not convinced beavers are the only culprit, though. She's watched water levels rise before her eyes as quarries drain water, she said.

Now the land on which Tilgner'shome sitswillbe rezonedwetland, docking property value, shesaid. That matters not because of any plans to sell to a developer, but because the couple isplanning their estate, she said.

"We had a good idea of what the property was worth and about two-thirds has come off the book value," she said.

Property owners can still hireevaluators if they want to challenge their land designation or seek compensation from the province residents were advised at the committee meeting.

Moffatt limits wetland boundary

The new wetland beingzonedmay besmaller than staff first recommended, however.

Consultant Dillon had studied the natural boundaries of the wetland, and staff proposed designatingmore than 500 hectares, saying turtles and plants don't obey the limits of a human map.

But at committee Thursday, Coun. Scott Moffatt had the boundary limited to 318 new hectares in the area that's always been in dispute, arguing home owners in West Carleton and elsewhereshouldn't suddenly be surprised to find themselves dragged in.

If the rezoning passes next week, it could mark the end of a difficult file that predates Moffatt'stime on council. It all began with one property owner who applied to create country estate lots in 2005 and triggered an evaluation of wetland boundaries, he said.

"Somehow that became all of this," Moffattsaid. "It just got bigger and bigger."