Waiting game as Simcoe growth stalls

By Laurie Watt Simcoe.comOct 12, 2010
SIMCOE COUNTY – Driving north out of the GTA and into Simcoe County, anyone can see what the area’s future could be: industrial development near Highway 400 with residential not far away.
“Bradford is the first major community north of the Green Belt, and luckily it’s in Simcoe County,” says county planning director Bryan MacKell.
“I’m sure the frustration level in Innisfil is high. They have an employment area at Highway 400 and Innisfil Beach Road. We’d like to talk about the types of industries, as well as the depth, breadth and scope of land.”
Nevertheless, despite being eager to help better position Innisfil – and Simcoe County –for better economic times and growth, MacKell can’t.
It’s a waiting game.
A chill has frozen most development in many Simcoe County municipalities, while politicians look longingly at the investment and construction occurring in Bradford West Gwillimbury (BWG).

Still, the town commiserates. After all, when one part hurts, the entire body hurts.
 “Uncertainty seems to reign in Simcoe County. First it was IGAP (the Intergovernmental Action Plan, between 2004 and 2006), then purported amendments to the Growth Plan (for the Greater Golden Horseshoe) and now an upper-tier official plan that has awaited approval for 22 months,” says BWG town manager Jay Currier.
“Hundreds of hours of staff time have been parked. Approximately $200 million has or will soon be invested in the town’s infrastructure program. We wish to avoid any further waste of resources and to return to an environment in which the private sector can invest with confidence.”
It’s in such stark contrast to just a few kilometres up the highway.
Innisfil and Oro-Medonte, among others, must wait for the province to make good on its promise of legislation that will outline how the area will grow over the next 25 years. Stalled are Innisfil’s plans for a Highway 400 industrial park as it sits mired in legal and legislative logjams that have Barrie and Simcoe County’s official plans under appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board. And with the county document on hold, planning decisions and developments in its 16 municipalities are also frozen in time.
“The province is going to have to determine the vision plan. We’d like to be a part of that,” says MacKell. “There are elements we’d like to see massaged or expanded, like the employment centre in Innisfil at Innisfil Beach Road (and Highway 400) and at the airport in Oro-Medonte.”
He says the county would like to begin working on planning  – and creating – the best job-creating hubs in Innisfil and near the airport.
“We’d like to have more opportunities for incubator facilities, to help businesses start and expand,” MacKell says of the Oro-Medonte site. “We don’t disagree we don’t need any big boxes out there.”
But at the same time, the regional airport is an incredible economic-development resource.
“We’re in the midst of a $12-million facelift, to make it more world class,” says LSRA Inc. president and Barrie City Coun. Michael Prowse. The runway is being lengthened, the fire suppression system upgraded and buildings are seeing renovations.
The airport upgrades are all seen as essential for the success of a proposed 200-acre aeropark designed to attract cargo carriers, light manufacturing businesses, and transportation and aviation-related enterprises, an idea Simcoe County sees as important to its future economic prosperity. It too, however, is frozen because it’s part of the county OP.
“We have lots going on (at the airport), thanks to the federal stimulus money,” Prowse adds. “If we come out ready to rock and roll, it would be nice if everyone had a clear plan of where they can develop and build.”
MacKell agrees, adding the county has talked with the provincial development facilitator about the airport – in an attempt to counter “very-restrictive policies” about what can be located there.
Accompanying lost potential and declining hopes are very-real economic consequences.
Springwater Township says housing starts are down drastically. In 2007, the town had 127, but by 2009 that number was down to 59. As of Aug. 31, 2010, the town has had just 51 starts.
Springwater CAO Winanne Grant attributes the downturn to “a lack of available lots, which is attributable to the delay in approvals of plans of subdivision.”
“This has had a significant impact within Springwater and as a result there has been a temporary layoff in the building department. Further layoffs of staff could be expected with the continued delay from the Province,” she says.
The town is also not netting the expected development charges and might have to revise its plans for infrastructure improvements, as well as delay its economic development strategy, revising how it plans to handle citizen demands for a new recreation centre.
Grant fears housing prices will rise due to limited supply; affordable housing will be that much more scarce.
Even further north, Midland and Penetanguishene await word from Ontario about whether the province will support the county’s proposal for a northern growth node. If not, they will grow, combined, by just 2,900 people over the next 25 years.
Penetanguishene is estimating its population will exceed the 2031 target Ontario set for the town. However, it fears a residential monopoly, which town CAO Eleanor Rath says will be “harmful to both buyers and builders” as there becomes less choice and higher prices.
Although removed from the Highway 400/Highway 11/airport economic corridor, Ramara says it’s feeling the pinch, too. In 2007, the town issued $18.8 million in building permits. As of July 31, 2010, this year’s value rings in at $9 million – a figure that includes $1.1 million for a township fire hall expansion.
And even outside the municipal realm, Simcoe County Warden Cal Patterson fears for local schools.
“Existing students are graduating and moving on, and with the lack of growth schools are finding their enrolment is dropping. That is creating a lot of stress for communities,” he said, as fears of accommodation review committees (ARCs) pit communities against each other.
“We need someone to sort things out.”