‘In the coming years, we will be taking stock of what the housing market has done and what the population demographics have done as well,’ says county planner
With a significant number of new residents anticipated to move into Simcoe County by 2055, the province is seeking public feedback on how to effectively manage these population challenges.
As stated on the Environmental Registry of Ontario’s website, the province aims to create a “comprehensive regional strategy” to address growth pressures by providing essential infrastructure in southern Simcoe County. This includes areas like Alliston and nearby locations in New Tecumseth, such as Beeton and Tottenham, along with the townships of Adjala-Tosorontio and Essa.
“Honda’s existing manufacturing plant in Alliston, the potential for future manufacturing investments in the area and related economic activity are key to Ontario’s efforts to attract and retain economic investments and create jobs,” according to the proposal details on the ERO’s website. “As a result, southern Simcoe County, and Barrie are expected to face increased pressure for residential development to accommodate a growing local population and demand.
“This growth is in part being driven by major economic investments, such as Honda’s anticipated expansion in Alliston, as well as significant provincial transportation projects such as the Barrie Line GO expansion and the Bradford Bypass,” it added.
During Tuesday’s regular meeting, county councillors agreed that staff should submit comments to the province via the ERO while also recommending five strategic actions. These include preparing long-term growth forecasts up until 2076, exploring a ‘growth reserve overlay’ policy framework, developing sub-regional infrastructure support strategies, assessing updated infrastructure service delivery models, and requesting an ‘evolved’ county role in regional planning.
“Simcoe County is facing significant growth pressures with over 250,000 new residents expected by 2051. Half of them will settle in south Simcoe,” says a county staff report. “The county’s planning efforts including adopting County Official Plan Amendment 7 (COPA7) aim to guide this growth through coordinated infrastructure and land-use planning.”
COPA7 still awaits approval from the province. This delay has created uncertainty for local municipalities like New Tecumseth that have been pursuing growth management studies according to the report.
The current provincial planning system does not allow counties to approve any local official plans or amendments that don’t align with their Official Plan explained the report. One “key benefit” of COPA7 is that it gives local municipalities clarity on how much growth should be planned for within their official plans along with necessary infrastructure investments needed for support said the report.
“While waiting for COPA7 approval has led us to make non-decisions about parts of some local official plans specifying 2051 growth forecasts some municipalities have wisely continued working towards updating their respective official plans consulting with County of Simcoe planning staff since COPA7 represents the best available forecasts,” stated the report.
Rob Elliott who is managing engineering planning and environment at County mentioned that staff thinks ERO posting was meant for public comment from landowners.
George Cabral is deputy mayor of Springwater Township. | Barrie Today files
“We felt it was wise to share our thoughts. We continue emphasizing that land-use planning must be connected with infrastructure planning while looking forward to discussing this matter further with the province,” Elliott said.
Springwater Deputy Mayor George Cabral asked if there was any news on when feedback regarding COPA7 might come since it was submitted three years ago. He also wondered if there would be an opportunity to adjust those numbers given how long it’s been since submission.
“We haven’t gotten clear updates about our submission yet. We understand Bill 23 raised questions about our role in planning while considering things like regional governance models within GTA (and) revisiting servicing models … they wanted all this taken into account before proceeding,” Elliott stated.
“I know consultations are happening regarding growth pressures in south Simcoe County; (and) I believe they want all factors considered prior to giving approval,” he added. “We don’t have much information clarifying reasons behind this delay.”
Elliott mentioned they’ve been waiting but haven’t received concrete insights from the province about what’s causing this wait time.
“Recent discussions indicate they plan on moving forward soon,” he noted. “We would’ve preferred having this approved sooner so we could’ve made updates instead of making one big step when something changed; we’d rather take two steps toward progress.”
The process involves many moving elements which can get complicated according to Elliott.
“You might already know that there’s also movement from using previous growth forecasting figures based on older plans toward utilizing Ministry of Finance numbers now too which comes with implications,” he pointed out.
Generally speaking those figures represent what municipalities need work within,” he said.
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Generally speaking those figures represent what municipalities need work within,” he said.
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