Midhurst: growing attraction

By CHERYL BROWNE – Barrie Examiner April 18 2012

SPRINGWATER TWP. — The problem with success is everybody wants a piece of the pie.

With the beautiful Township of Springwater moments north of Barrie, the quiet suburb of Midhurst is a beacon of well-kempt homes on large lots.

With Barrie’s boundaries bursting at the seams, the idyllic life of the city’s northern neighbours offers a picture of quiet, clean living.

Unfortunately, the secret’s out that it’s a nice place to live, so others want to reside there, too. About 10,000 of them.

In accordance with provincial legislation, municipal planners have to file an official plan, and then a secondary growth plan, proving their municipality is keeping an eye on the future and can manage their growth responsibly, and in keeping with the Places to Grow legislation.

“We believe growth should be planned and developed by council and not dictated by the developers,” said Mayor Linda Collins.

“Development doesn’t just happen. Developers would just buy the best land with the best vistas and the best drainage and there’d be no input by the township.

“We made the Midhurst Secondary Plan in good faith, in that we’d mitigated the concerns the residents were raising, knowing we need to preserve the culture of Midhurst.”

So having many of the Midhurst taxpayers up in arms over proposed development in their community has come as somewhat of a surprise to Collins.

After holding a dozen public town hall meetings for the residents requesting their input, feedback and opinion during the last 10 years, Collins, and manager of planning, Brent Spagnol, are left scratching their heads.

No, Spagnol says, some of the meetings weren’t well attended, but many were.

“We did have feedback about environmental concerns, roads and traffic questions,” Spagnol said. There were concerns raised about trails, wooded lands and water services — and whether they’d have to give up their septic systems — that were all addressed, he said.

The fact that some 1,400 Midhurst residents recently signed a petition and made a deputation to the town’s council stating they’re not keen to have 10,000 new homes built in Springwater during the next 20 years is understandable.

That the former farmers and landowners along Doran Road want to sell and move on to the next stage in their lives, but now must wait on the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to determine whether Springwater’s plan follows the Places to Grow mandate, has become a tiresome game and wait and see everybody has tired of.

Springwater staff and council’s plan to wait for the province to determine whether the Midhurst Secondary Plan will be grandfathered into the new legislation announced by Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli in January — so the need for the OMB hearing becomes a moot point — raises the eyebrows once again.

“We’re waiting for answers, residents are waiting for answers and landowners are waiting for answers,” said Robert Brindley, the new CAO who just arrived into this juggernaut in February.

“We’re all in a holding pattern, waiting.”