Now what?
With Barrie’s requests for land in Springwater and Oro-Medonte townships both essentially dismissed, where does the city now turn to acquire property there for industrial, manufacturing and warehousing uses?
“I have not formally asked the province to step in, but we did start the process by speaking at that committee,” Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said of the provincial standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy, regional governance and Bill 234, on Nov. 6.
“I did lay it in front of the province to say look, this is what we’re trying to achieve, these are the things that we’re running into in terms of speed bumps,” he said. “I’ve kept the province informed all the way along with regards to any conversations we were having with Springwater, Oro-Medonte and the potential for new lands in the city of Barrie to allow for industrial expansion.”
Barrie could provide for 20,000 industrial, manufacturing and warehousing jobs during the next 20 years if it could work out a deal to use neighbouring land, Nuttall said. The mayor was speaking Thursday at Barrie City Hall, marking this council’s first year in office.
He has identified 1,907 acres of land, public and private, east of Penetanguishene Road and generally south of Highway 11 in Oro-Medonte for the project.
Three parcels of land in Springwater Township have also been identified for potential development.
There are 2,564 acres in and around Little Lake, much of it city-owned, 422 acres along Highway 90 and 284 acres in the Midhurst area, just north of Barrie.
Springwater council voted unanimously Wednesday night to terminate discussions with Barrie about the city’s proposal for boundary adjustments and cross-border servicing for industrial, manufacturing and warehouse use on 3,270 acres in the township. Township council also approved sending a letter to Ontario’s ministry of municipal affairs and housing, advising it of the termination of talks.
And Oro-Medonte Township council has said it’s not comfortable with Barrie’s request for 1,907 acres within its borders for the same types of use.
“We’ve made an offer for, at the start of negotiations, that included upwards of $8 million a year in new tax revenue for each of those municipalities," Nuttall said, “and it’s unfortunate that we’re at this point here and the partnership isn’t available with Springwater.
“I hope that changes and we’ll certainly be here to work with both Springwater and Oro-Medonte to move forward on a plan that creates jobs for their residents and for ours," he added.
In his presentation to Oro-Medonte councillors last week, Nuttall laid out four key principles of the deal — environmental conservation, value to both municipalities, in addition to taxes from employment land and cost savings on infrastructure, employment opportunities for all residents and potential additional housing opportunities.
The Barrie mayor noted there is water and wastewater servicing present within the city limits on the west side of Penetanguishene Road. A service-sharing agreement with the Township of Oro-Medonte would also need to be established.
Of the 1,907 acres identified in study area, the City of Barrie says it would agree to service 10 per cent of the developable land for Oro-Medonte’s use at the end of the city’s servicing window.
Oro-Medonte would pay all the infrastructure costs associated with their land, with no commitment on timing.
And approximately 10 per cent of tax revenue would flow back to Oro-Medonte, until such time as the township’s employment land was serviced and then it would end. Or, consideration could be given to a set contribution amount.
Barrie’s plan also includes a commitment to create a conservation area around Little Lake, including the Bear Creek Wetland and the Hewitts Creek corridor, to ensure this land is preserved in perpetuity, Nuttall has said, and not developed in parcels.
“The property in Springwater Township around Little Lake has always been envisioned to be preserved for the future as environmentally friendly land, not for the use of industrial purposes,” Nuttall said.
“So all of that land we envision being preserved just that way and we would like to put that into a more formal land trust or conservation trust, so it is preserved that way for the future and there’s no nibbling away at it over time for development," he added.
Nuttall has said that because there’s little or no city-owned industrial land available, Barrie is losing industry and jobs.
Last month, TNR Industrial Doors, part of Hörmann Group Canada and at its Fairview Road facility in Barrie since 2003, announced it was relocating to Oro-Medonte, along with its 86 employees.
This is not the first time in recent memory Barrie has wanted land from its neighbours.
The provincially mandated Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act came into effect on Jan. 1, 2010, transferring 5,664 acres of Innisfil land to Barrie, extending city wards 7, 8, 9 and 10 to include the new properties.
The Barrie-Vespra Annexation Act of 1984 gobbled up what is now the Bayfield Street North area.
