Over the past six months, Springwater council has taken a unique path to deal with the City of Barrie’s proposed boundary expansion into Springwater and Oro-Medonte townships.
First, in mid-November of last year, about a week after Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall announced the city was looking at boundary expansion, Springwater council members decided they weren’t going to talk with Barrie for any reason surrounding the controversial plan.
Four months later, on March 6, Springwater council decided the municipality would talk to Barrie, but only about cross-border servicing for water and wastewater. Council dictated that there be no talks about boundary expansion.
That didn’t work out very well.
Barrie sent the township packing.
“It was made very clear that we have nothing to offer if not land,” Springwater Mayor Jennifer Coughlin said at the time. “They are not looking for a fee-for-service or ‘a la carte’ service to their pipes, their treatment facility and their water.
“If we’re not talking about boundary adjustment, the conversation with Barrie no longer exists,” she added. “That was made very clear to us in an email.”
In mid-April, neighbouring Oro-Medonte announced it would contact the provincial land and development facilitator to request assisted mediation regarding Barrie’s boundary expansion plans.
At its May 1 council meeting, Springwater council voted against participating in any meeting with a provincial land facilitator regarding Barrie’s proposal until it received a staff report that gave them the information they thought they needed to make an informed decision.
The latest gambit, exhaustive as it may be, may not provide the tonic the township needs, because it doesn’t address the central issue — Barrie’s need for land and what land Springwater is prepared to offer up.
Prepared by Doug Herron, Springwater's director of planning and development, the 19-page report on the issue, with more than 300 pages of background information, delivers what township council asked for, which is an exploration and examination of potential future options and areas for growth and economic viability in the municipality.
Staff were asked to:
- Identify potential areas for increased residential and industrial development beyond current settlement area boundaries.
- Explore potential locations for ‘special economic zones’ where collaboration with neighbouring municipalities may be realized.
- Evaluate current municipal cross-border servicing agreements in Ontario.
- Consider collaboration with the County of Simcoe regarding a regional water and wastewater infrastructure model that would support further development of employment land.
According to Herron, following a review of both the township’s growth management strategy and the county’s land-needs assessment, Springwater has a sufficient supply of land to achieve its 2051 growth numbers.
“As the need for lands cannot be justified at this time, township planning staff are unable to consider or support substantive (greater than 40 hectares) expansions to existing settlement areas under current provincial policy,” Herron wrote.
He said to fully respond to council’s request to “identify potential areas for increased residential and industrial development beyond current settlement area boundaries,” Springwater staff is recommending the township issue a request for proposal (RFP) to seek input from qualified professions, including but not limited to demographers, economists, engineers and planners, to provide a locally focused growth management model to determine opportunities for expansion beyond established ‘settlement area’ boundaries.
Staff estimated the cost of this RFP would be $100,000 to $150,000.
Herron’s report identified six potential "special economic zones," which are locations within the township where the adjacent municipality provides, or has planned to provide, municipal water and wastewater services.
The parameters of the analysis were limited to two factors:
- That the locations are centred on locations where a highway or roadway cross or abut the municipal border.
- Where either partial or full municipal servicing is available or could be made available in the future from either one, or both municipalities.
Staff determined special economic zones to mean areas which currently, and in the future, could host shared commercial or industrial zones. Locations where the uses on either side of the municipal borders are strictly residential or rural have been excluded as potential sites.
Zone 1 includes land generally located between Partridge Road to the north, Penetanguishene Road to the east, Highway 11 to the south and Highway 400 to the north.
Zone 2 abuts land in Springwater, Barrie and Oro-Medonte. The land is framed with Highway 400 and Highway 11 North to the west, Penetanguishene Road/County Road 93 to the east and Georgian Drive to the south.
Zone 3 is Bayfield Street where the township abuts the City of Barrie. These properties are currently the subject of two applications for municipal zoning orders (MZOs) which are awaiting a decision from the province.
Zone 4 encompasses the crossroads at Wilson Drive/Ferndale Road and Sunnidale Road. The economic zone abuts the City of Barrie to the south. Municipal sanitary services could be provided by either the Township of Springwater from the Centre Vespra wastewater plant, or by the City of Barrie.
Zone 5 is located at the intersection of County Road 90 and Miller Drive at the south border of the township and is shared with Essa Township and the City of Barrie. Zone 5 is currently established as an industrial/commercial node on land in each of the three municipalities.
Zone 6 is located in the southwest corner of the township, is shared with Essa Township and incorporates the intersections of Sunnidale Road, County Road 90 and County Road 56.
According to Herron’s report, township staff contacted numerous Ontario municipalities regarding cross-border servicing and discovered there are as many reasons for cross-border servicing as there are cross-border servicing agreements.
“The denominator is that there was, first, a need on one or both sides of the border, and second, the servicing agreements resulted in what is colloquially described as a ‘win-win’ result for each municipal corporation and, in the end, the public,” Herron wrote.
When it comes to considering collaboration with the County of Simcoe regarding a regional water and wastewater infrastructure model that would support further development of employment land, Herron’s report was optimistic.
“Through the regional review committee, and in particular the water and wastewater service delivery review, the County of Simcoe adopted four recommendations, two of which would be directly applicable to the county assisting the township with shared services delivery projects,” Herron wrote. “Should council decide to move forward with the exploration of the potential of ‘special economic zones,' staff suggest that the County of Simcoe would present as a beneficial partner in any discussions.”
The recommendations from the review include:
- Lobby for provincial support.
- Establish a municipal partner water and wastewater utility task forces.
- Increase county role and expertise.
- Improve communications and collaboration.
