Deputy-mayor hopes county-led municipal review can keep Innisfil 'unique'

Barrietoday.com
Dec. 15, 2021

The Town of Innisfil has a lot to say about the County of Simcoe’s municipal comprehensive review (MCR).

Councillors approved a motion regarding the MCR at their Dec. 8 meeting that included 10 clauses, nine of which were specific comments to the county from the municipality.

Those comments hoped to solidify the role council wants Innisfil to play in helping the county reach its growth targets of 550,000 residents and 198,000 jobs by 2051. They also were designed to spell out what council doesn’t want to see happen.

“We, as a town, have so many things coming at us from the province and the county; it’s like three highways coming together with no roads out,” said Deputy Mayor Dan Davidson. “I think it’s really in the interest of keeping Innisfil unique. … We don’t want to be Vaughan or Markham or Mississauga.”

Overall, staff were content with the projections put forward by the county’s consultant, Hemson Consulting, regarding forecasted population and employment figures for Innisfil in 2051, calling them “generally acceptable.”

Hemson suggests Innisfil’s population could grow by more than 40,000 to 84,750 by 2051, with an increase of 16,410 jobs to 36,190. While the consultant initially suggested a settlement boundary expansion of more than 175 hectares to reach these goals, that number is being revised after an error was discovered.

Staff indicated that no matter what number they receive from the county, it’s likely to be lower than the increase of nearly 1,400 hectares already proposed through settlement area boundary requests received by the county to date.

As well, the employment figures might need some work.

“The town’s employment forecast needs to be adjusted upwards to account for the development of the RVH South Campus in Innisfil along with considering the potential for increasing the town’s allocation of employment land to support a future expansion of the Innisfil Heights employment area boundary" farther south along Highway 400 to the 5th Line as originally identified in the Town’s OPA1 from 2006, the staff report stated.

Ensuring that the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) South Campus was part of an Economic Employment District was one of the initial comments to the county included in the original motion, as were comments regarding future uses of areas the proposed GO station as part of the Orbit development and applying a Built Boundary to the settlement areas of Lefroy-Belle Ewart, Sandy Cove and Stroud.

Coun. Alex Waters brought forward several additional recommendations “that reflect the concerns of citizens,” addressed primarily in a delegation from Claire Malcolmson, executive director of Rescue Lake Simcoe.

Malcolmson hoped the town would be successful in its request for the built boundary, seeing more intensification focused on the existing small communities that make up Innisfil, allowing them to become more walkable and support transit densities, moves that ultimately have a strong environmental impact, noting a phase-in process and multi-year plans for developments beyond Orbit was imperative.

One of her bigger concerns was the work essentially being downloaded onto the residents.

“The ridiculous thing that’s happened, as far as I can tell, is that Simcoe County put all the registered plans of subdivision on this map, whether they had any chance of being developed or not,” she said as she showed a map of Big Bay Point during her presentation. “It’s not fair to have us do this work.”

But she and her group did the work, and with the assistance of the town, have identified the history of the registered plans of subdivision in the area, some of which date back to the 1920s. Getting some of these off the books would go a long way in securing the area for the future.

“This is an area of high-quality natural cover,” Malcolmson said of the Big Bay Point area. “This is the biggest shoreline forest, and we can’t afford to lose it.

Two of the additional comments introduced by the amendment introduced by Waters specifically sought to correct the apparent oversight of the county, requesting that areas of high-quality natural cover in the Lake Simcoe watershed be protected by removing natural heritage system approved plans of subdivision that were in settlement area boundaries as of July 1, 2007, as well to remove the non-conforming, old, registered plans of subdivision from the proposed refinement mapping.

Waters’ amendment also took inspiration from the Innisfil District Association (IDA). The IDA’s concerns were shared by Ross Pityk in the open forum of the council meeting and included the removal of natural heritage systems from the municipality, specifically the smaller 30-to-40-acre patches of wetlands and woodlands.

“They just don’t get the protection they deserve,” Pityk said. “Many of these lands are rich in biodiversity and part of natural heritage corridors. Some of these smaller wetlands act as natural flood barriers and are features that don’t cost the council any money for flood mitigation.”

Pityk added the IDA fully supported Malcolmson in her delegation to council.

Alex Savanyu of Bousfield Inc., also spoke in open forum, representing the Stroud Village Developers Group. His organization was happy to see Stroud would be included in the built boundary but wanted to encourage additional expansion in the community.

“The expansion of Stroud makes sense because given its ability to accommodate housing and population growth and is part of the natural evolution of the community that is already there today,” Savanyu said.

Staff will be relaying the town’s comments on the MCR to the county by Jan. 14, 2022.