Mother Nature is being shortchanged in a key growth plan proposed for Simcoe County, an area naturalist charges.

“They are totally ignoring the environment,” Jim Woodford said this week.

A plan aimed at governing the explosive growth that is expected to hit the county in coming years fails to consider environmental impacts related to that growth, he added.

“There should be a strong message saying the environment is important, and that there should be a balance between development and environmental protection,” Woodford said.

County officials have said environmental concerns would be addressed through a review of the Official Plan, which will include studies of source-water protection and other facets of environmental conservation.

Planning director Ian Bender in an earlier interview said existing policies would be strengthened through that review.

As it now stands, “the Official Plan has almost the weakest requirements of any county plan in the province of Ontario,” argues Woodford.

Without firm restrictions on future development, “developers will get a false impression,” he contends.

“They need a strong statement in the growth plan about the environment,” he added. “We are talking about a balance between the environment and development.”

To the south, the City of Barrie is also challenging the county to rethink the growth plan, charging that it flies in the face of a provincial mandate to curb sprawl.

Coun. Barry Ward, who chaired a council committee that examined the document, said it promotes “greenfield development over revitalization, rural sprawl over intensification, more long-distance commuting instead of live-work communities, private automobiles over public transit, and patchwork development over complete communities.”

Over the past two weeks, the county has hosted three public forums, which attracted 500 people, to garner public input on the plan that will be used to make the county’s Official Plan – the long-range planning document – conform to Ontario’s Places to Grow, which requires sprawl to be contained, agricultural land to be protected and the construction of complete communities.

County politicians want provincial assurance that the province will support the county if and when constraints on development are appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board.

“We want the province as an ally,” said the county’s growth consultant, Antony Lorius, of Toronto-based Hemson Consulting. “This plan is coming down on an accelerated real estate market. It’s a political discussion we need to have with the province.”

According to the county’s draft plan – which is to be approved by county council May 27 – economic growth would be focused in an enterprise zone in south Simcoe along Highway 400; the county has also designated the Alliston area, where Honda is planning to expand, for growth.