Cambridge's new planning commissioner wears the scars from Ontario's nastiest environmental battle of the last decade.

Until Aug. 14, Cambridge native Janet Babcock was planning commissioner in Richmond Hill, a city of 130,000 north of Toronto along Yonge Street.

One of her most vocal opponents in the fight to save the Oak Ridges Moraine from development is happy she's gone.

"God, you've got her?" asked Gloria Marsh, chair of the York Region Environmental Alliance. "When I got your message, I thought, 'Is that true? We're rid of her?' "

The only praise she has for Babcock is backhanded, echoing the bitterness of the bare-knuckle brawl to slow suburban sprawl northward from Toronto.

Babcock's proposals to shield the groundwater recharge area from housing, which were developer-friendly, angered people enough to act, Marsh said.

"It hit the fan when one of her planning things got people so up in arms. We got thousands of people against this."

Her advice to Cambridge? Scrutinize every planning proposal Babcock brings forward. Be vocal in your criticism.

And that's fine with Babcock, who says the planning process -- between developers, politicians and citizens -- is as important as the outcome.

Everyone must be heard in a process, even if everyone isn't happy with the result, she said.

"In my mind, you have to understand the objectives of all the parties. It's not yes-no. It's how do we make this work?"

She said she holds the environment in high regard in any planning situation, but it's never the only consideration.

The Oak Ridges Moraine grew into a battle the players couldn't settle themselves, Babcock said. It was only the intervention of former Toronto mayor David Crombie as mediator that found a path to peace.

"When you're in the middle of the storm, you're simply looking for a way out of the storm, a way to calm the storm," she said.

Unlike booming cities and towns closer to Toronto, Cambridge has the advantage of growing at a more manageable pace, Babcock said.

"You've got established neighbourhoods, you've got the ability to grow a little piece at a time."

Babcock replaces Wendy Wright, who retired at the end of June.

She has no plans to remake the city planning department. She plans to sit in on various city advisory committees and awaits briefings on the most pressing issues.

City plans to extend a sewer through a protected wetland along Dundas Street South and housing proposed for the Forbes Estate in Hespeler will soon land on her desk.

In her career, Babcock helped start the "Greening of Sudbury" in the 1970s. Among other things, evergreen trees were planted to revive a landscape scarred by acidic smelter emissions.

She also created economic development plans for Prince Edward Island and tourism plans in Saskatchewan. The York Region official plan was partly her work, too.

Babcock, 55, grew up in Galt and watched Cambridge grow as she returned several times a year to visit family.

She lived on Wilmot and Salisbury avenues. She remembers when there was farmland along both sides of Hespeler Road and a pond at Dunbar Road, where she swam in summer and skated in winter.

Babcock credits Ken MacKenzie, her geography teacher at Southwood Secondary School, for starting her on a planning career. She studied planning at the University of Waterloo and graduated in 1974. Then she studied at the London School of Economics, which she said gives her a financial filter to assess planning issues.

Dollars drive how a community grows and changes, she said. Galt, Preston and Hespeler began because rivers provided water power for industry. Housing followed. Today, the economics of oil shapes how Cambridge grows.

People are addicted to their car-centric, commuter lifestyle, Babcock said. The rising cost of fuel has the potential to price suburbia out of existence.

"Like any municipality, we are part of the global village," she said. "I think, fundamentally, the world is about to change."

kswayze@therecord.com

Credit: RECORD STAFF