Growth plan amendment: Dunlop calls for more time

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance Jan 18, 2011
SIMCOE COUNTY – Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop discovered this week just how little new municipal councillors understand about Places to Grow.
Details of the amendment were released Oct. 26 – the day after last fall’s municipal election. Deadline for municipal input is Jan. 31.
“The province should put the brakes on this and make sure municipal politicians are educated and brought right up to snuff,” said Dunlop, a former chairperson of Simcoe County’s planning committee.
“This was done deliberately. (The McGuinty Liberals) announced the amendment the day after the election. There was a month of lame duck (in the previous councils). Then we had Christmas – and the new councillors are just starting to learn.”
It’s critical they understand the implications of the proposed legislation, he said, because they will use that knowledge to approve or deny development applications, whether small lots or low rises or, in the case of Barrie, high rises.
“Are the municipal councillors braced for what could be the fall out? I don’t think they are. There could be a 25-storey building in Barrie. There are highrises and the city doesn’t have the equipment to fight high-rise fires. In little rural towns, there’ll be minimal growth,” he said. “My wife is a brand-new councillor – and I’m telling her about the growth plan. She’s just beginning, getting to her first (township planning committee) meeting.”
Places to Grow directs growth to urban centres – Barrie, Bradford, Alliston, Collingwood, Orillia and Midland/Penetanguishene (a proposed northern node). Those areas must be intensification and density targets – that is, they must infill within their current boundary, as well as encourage mixed and more-dense projects, such as townhouses and apartments, rather than single-family homes on larger lots.
It strictly limits growth outside those areas, with goal to stop sprawl and protect agricultural land.
“I was chairman of the planning services committee of Simcoe County – and I thought we had it right, (by) allowing the little hamlets to grow,” he said of his days as Coldwater, then Severn Township, reeve. He served on numerous Simcoe County committees between 1982 and his election as MP in 1999, including a term as county warden in 1998.
Dunlop tried to get the deadline for comments changed before Christmas – but after hearing about the short briefings taking place this week, he’s even more determined to see the deadline extended to July 31.
“There are 70 new councillors in the Simcoe County area, over 50 per cent are new, and they’re like deer in the headlights. I can’t believe we can do this to these people,” he said.