If you’d like to see what Springwater Township might look like in 20, 30 or 40 years, take a short trip south to King Township.
The municipalities bear a striking resemblance to one another.
In King Township, there’s Nobleton and King City anchoring the southern portion with substantial residential development. In the north, Schomberg tries to leverage the municipality’s agricultural roots and history to attract folks from nearby urban regions.
In between, there are thousands of hectares of agricultural land.
In Springwater, Centre Vespra and Midhurst replace Nobleton and King City, respectively, and Elmvale replaces Schomberg.
The similarities are not lost on Jeff Schmidt, Springwater Township’s chief administrative officer, who worked for King Township, the City of Barrie and the Regional Municipality of York prior to joining Springwater.
“In my opinion, they’re quite similar,” Schmidt said during an interview with BarrieToday to discuss the township’s 20-year community-based strategic plan at the township’s administration centre.
“King has moved forward on some great initiatives and I think Springwater is a little behind the 8-ball in that regards, but we’re starting to grow up, to put things in place to ensure our residents are looked after," he added.
The equivalent of a young adult who’s put in a few years of work after a lifetime of school, the township is still finding its legs, defining its personality and coming to grips with its reason for being.
Springwater Township turned 30 this year, born when the townships of Flos and Vespra were joined together in territorial matrimony with the village of Elmvale and the Hillsdale/Orr Lake area from the Township of Medonte.
“The township is growing, but it doesn’t feel like it in some areas, specifically in policy and procedure,” Schmidt said. “We’re trying to grow up — walk, not run, at this point — and we need to put more structure in place.
“Larger municipalities have the resources and the structures in place where they can fall back on them when needed," he added.
Schmidt said the progression from township to town to city is a natural evolution with more layers of structure being added along the way.
“We’re trying to get to that point,” he said.
The township’s 20-year community-based strategic plan is the road-map stakeholders, residents and township employees will use to move the municipality forward.
The plan began to take shape in 2022 when the township hired a consultant to start the process. Schmidt said it took about a year to put the document together following multiple rounds of community surveys, focus groups and interviews.
“We tried to get representation and input from as many sources as possible,” Schmidt said. “Working with a consultant, we created five key goals with a number of different action items for each.”
The five goals are:
- Leveraging growth to improve Springwater as a community
- Leveraging growth to improve Springwater’s economy
- Building community unity to support a sense of place
- Addressing climate change while embracing environmental sustainability
- Corporate actions
Achieving these goals will be vital to the township’s future.
“We’re going to see a lot of new individuals coming to Springwater from other urban centres who have had every amenity they want,” Schmidt said. “We have to manage those expectations and make those decisions as to what we can afford to provide.
“We can bring additional services to their attention, tell them what it costs and this is how it can be paid for. It would then be up to them," the CAO added.
With only so many dollars available, Schmidt said the township will have to constantly evaluate what services are offered and how often they are offered. In some cases, he said, they may not be offered at all.
“It’s about being more efficient,” Schmidt said. “For example, do we really need to cut the grass every week? Could it be done every second week, once a month or does it need to be done at all?
“We have to be sure that we add value to every action,” he added. “If it doesn’t add value, then why are we doing it?”
To ensure value is added at every step and the long-range vision is achieved, Schmidt has assembled a senior management team that he said has the right mix of expertise, experience, foresight and passion.
He said they will be the ones who will be responsible for finding the solutions to Springwater’s challenges.
“They all have great experience and they’re already making good contributions,” Schmidt said.
Moving forward, they’ll be charged with finding solutions to a myriad of concerns that will impact the 20-year plan — infrastructure, employment and industrial land inventories, economic development, health services and recreational services.
“We need to focus on everything, not just certain parts,” Schmidt said. “Elmvale is our only complete community. There will be additional growth there, but we need to address sewer capacity. It’s a major challenge.
“Midhurst needs to become a complete community and we’re working on it with the community hub and the recently announced medical hub on Snow Valley Road.”
A work in progress, the 20-year plan will be revisited annually to make sure all input is aligned and the plan remains on target.
“This is our first 20-year community based strategic plan,” Schmidt said. “We don’t want to re-do it, we want to ensure it remains relevant.”
