Midhurst group wants voice at OMB hearing

By Cheryl Browne, Barrie Examiner June 18, 2013
SPRINGWATER TWP. – The Midhurst Ratepayers’ Association is gearing up for a fight to defend their right to participate at a Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing to quash plans for a new subdivision in Midhurst.

After applying to the OMB to have legal standing as a ‘party’ – or group with a vested interest in the outcome of the decision – it was granted.
But the County of Simcoe is challenging the ratepayers’ rights to have status at the OMB hearing at this week’s pre-hearing, to be held Thursday at Alliston’s Nottawasaga Inn.
Simcoe County planning director David Parks said the county is following OMB rules regarding appealing a party’s right to appear and present their case before them.
“We’ve looked at their argument and we don’t think it’s valid,” Parks said. “They’ve said there’s no planning merit for this (development) to proceed. We believe there is a valid planning argument.”
The ratepayers association – which says it represents 3,722 Midhurst residents – believes village residents deserve a voice at the hearing.
“Our position is they followed the letter of the law, but it wasn’t in good faith,” said the association’s Margaret Prophet.
David Strachan, interim president of the association, said he’s been told they shouldn’t insist on being represented at the OMB.
“In essence, they’re telling us because we failed to appeal the Midhurst Secondary Plan back in 2011 – we’re now trying to lodge our complaint to contest that – but (they say) the OMB is the wrong forum,” Strachan said.
At a May 14 standing-room-only crowd at a Springwater Township meeting, residents argued the township’s Midhurst Secondary Plan, which will allow developers to build homes on two large plots of land, adding 3,850 homes to the small village north of Barrie, was excessive.
“We believe the initial study of the area was never meant to be the (entire) settlement area,” she said. “When you see an 800% population increase, that’s indicative of urban sprawl.”
The Midhurst Secondary Plan process began in the early 1990s, when the province mandated each city, town and township create an Official Plan and designate specific areas for growth. The township identified Midhurst and Elmvale as locations for growth and in 1998 the Official Plan was approved.
In 2004, the township updated its Midhurst settlement areas and held public meetings beginning in May of that year until 2008 with an increase from 3,500 homes to 10,000 homes.
Both Simcoe County and the province balked, and the plan was taken to the municipal board for review.
The county later released its portion of the OMB appeal in 2011, but the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) and five landowners were still appealing the plan.
In January 2012, the province updated its Places to Grow program – called Amendment No. 1 – specifying which areas, or nodes, were designated for development.
Last November’s announcement that 300 of the original 756 hectares planned for development (3,850 homes) have now been given the green light frustrated many residents.
“The 300 hectares still brings the waste facility and environmental concerns with it,” Prophet said.
It’s believed the remaining 456 hectares will be held by the province until it updates Amendment No. 1 in a decade or so. At the April pre-hearing at the OMB, its adjudicators extended the deadline for parties to apply for representation status at the hearing until the June 20 meeting in Alliston.