• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Overturning Midhurst Secondary Plan possible: Springwater mayor-elect French

By
In Agriculture
Oct 30th, 2014
2 Comments
2114 Views

By  Leigh Blenkhorn Barrie Advance

Overturning the Midhurst Secondary Plan will not be easy, but it is possible, says Springwater Township’s newly elected mayor, Bill French.

French won the job with 3,426 votes in Monday’s municipal election. He beat out incumbent Linda Collins, who received 2,468 votes.

Tony Guergis ended up in third with 581 votes.

“It allows me working with a new council to take the township in a direction that is conducive to its rural character rather than becoming an urban-centric municipality,” French said.

As mayor, French plans to ask the province to re-consider allowing the addition of 3,850 homes in Midhurst, he said.

This month, Springwater received a letter from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, stating the province does not plan to review the Midhurst Secondary Plan (MSP), nor does it plan to re-examine the transition regulations. This includes a special rule permitting development on up to 300 hectares of land.

Her letter “very simply says, ‘do not plan.’ Quite different than ‘will not’,” French said.

He added: the province would never review a plan unless the municipality asked.

Collins said she does not believe French can stop the MSP.

“The residents have spoken. The majority wants to believe that one person can overturn the Midhurst Secondary Plan and the special rule that allows the growth to proceed in Midhurst,” she said.

French said this shows Collins is “disconnected from the policies.”

He said Springwater was set to expand under the Places to Grow policy. And it was the “loud” voice of the development community that resulted in the population target expanding.

In 2009, Ontario’s Places to Grow policy targeted Springwater Township for 6,500 more residents by 2031.

The MSP allows for the development of 3,850 homes for a total population growth of 10,000 to 12,000 by 2031.

If this occurs, Midhurst’s population would grow from 18,000 people to about 28,000; “A city the size of Orillia,” French said.

French said he wants to restrict growth to the population allotment in the Places to Grow policy and wants growth spread throughout the township in Midhurst, Elmvale and Hillsdale.

Along with ousting its incumbent mayor, Springwater elected a new deputy mayor, Don Allen. With 3,133 votes, he beat incumbent Dan McLean, who received 2,811 votes.

Katy Austin earned Springwater’s Ward 1 councillor seat with 537 votes.

Perry Ritchie was re-elected as Ward 2 councillor. He earned 811 votes.

Ward 3’s councillor is Jennifer Coughlin with 821 votes while Sandy McConkey was acclaimed in Ward 4.

In Ward 5, Jack Hanna was re-elected with 1,517 votes.

Incumbent Peter Beacock was re-elected as Simcoe County District School Board trustee. He defeated Jason Krynicki with just less than 80 per cent of the vote.

Francis Smith beat Lydia Reekie for the Catholic board seat.

2 Responses to “Overturning Midhurst Secondary Plan possible: Springwater mayor-elect French”

  1. robert lalonde says:

    Growth is inevitable in Simcoe County or should I say growth pressure. The challenge is how and where to allocate the growth all the while trying to mitigate the environmental impact.Midhursts challenge is its proximity to the Willow Creek. I’m not aware of any development proposals or existing developments especially of this scale in Ontario with topography as unique as Midhursts. The Province, Simcoe County,the Mayors of Barrie, Springwater should have a discussion based on sound planning taking into account proximity to employment( long term) ,agriculture, reducing carbon footprint, viable transit solutions etc. Our Environmental Commisioner Gordon Miller wants municipalities to take this all into account. Just got to convince the land owners and developers who want to make a guide buck.

Leave a Reply

Commenters must post under real names. AWARE Simcoe reserves the right to edit or not publish comments. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *