Land Development - North GTA - Simcoe County

[tobaccoroad]

Greetings:

If anyone out there cares to share info / knowledge, etc on land development issues in the Simcoe County area, I would appreciate any thoughts, etc.

By way of disclosure, my interests are related to the fact that the family farm is now "developable" and accordingly for my own selfish purposes, are pro-development (at least for our property!).

Issues relating to the new density requirements arising from Places to Grow Act, land values, dealing with the professionals ("environmental consultants" are my new favourite ) are all subjects of interest to me.

Finally, if anyone is aware of land development "blogs", let me know.

 

[unimaginative2]

How far north are you in Simcoe County? Places to Grow doesn't really cover Simcoe, so the development restrictions are much, much looser. It depends on your municipality.

 

[tobaccoroad]

Actually the Act does cover Simcoe County. Barrie has been designated and Urban Growth Centre and Simcoe County is subject to the "Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe".

We are located near Alliston and thanks to the expanding Honda Plant appear to be in favourable locale.

 

[unimaginative2]

Sorry! I misspoke when I said Places to Grow. I meant the Greenbelt. Since you're outside that, I'd expect that Alliston will be on its way to pretty massive growth. That's especially true because of the strong water infrastructure they built to accommodate the Honda plant.

 

[Observer Walt]

Simcoe County is putting together a "growth plan". Some resources will be available at www.growth.simcoe.ca

Also, have a talk, preferably in person, with a planner at your local municipality (New Tecumseth?) to determine the status of your property under both the Official Plan and the Zoning Bylaw. These will give you guidance as to what uses can be made of your land.

 

[VoiceofReality]

Simcoe County is putting together a "growth plan". Some resources will be available at www.growth.simcoe.ca

Also, have a talk, preferably in person, with a planner at your local municipality (New Tecumseth?) to determine the status of your property under both the Official Plan and the Zoning Bylaw. These will give you guidance as to what uses can be made of your land.

Further to the above comment I agree you should also speak with the County as they seem to be active in planning for future development and may have influence over what happens with your land. Is there a land owners group? Usually a land owners group can be influential in how the whole plan comes together. Is there an applicable conservation authority?

 

[tobaccoroad]

Thanks for the comments. We are beyond that however and have been monitoring the situation at the county and am aware of the noted website. Interesting presentations from the developers' forum.

Our lands have been recently (through OMB fiat) included within the "settlement area" boundary of the particular village. We are in the process of preparing all the necessary reports etc, in support of an application for Official Plan Amendment to deal with designating the lands (residential, EP, etc.)

Thus far the new regime seems to be working in our favour in that it mandates higher density than which the local municipality and residents would want otherwise. It is ironic that the province touted the notion that they are giving municipalities greater control, when in fact they removed any discretion they had on the most important issues in terms of development and growth. Given our circumstances, I am in no position to complain.

The local conservation authority is the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority which thus far have been professional in their approach, although they have some technical legal problems in their regulations and regulated limits mapping that when pointed out to them lead to the proverbial jaw drop.

Once we get the lands designated via the forthcoming OPA, the lands should be more marketable as any developer/purchaser will have a better handle on what they are buying. We won't be proceeding to draft plan approval, as that will be something left for them to do.

The issue of valuation is a hard one. Especially for a property of this size (250 acres overall, with about 130 acres net of high constraint lands). As it stands right now, unless lands are within a settlement area boundary (like ours), there is no chance that any development can occur during the "next round". As the representative from Hemson Consulting (the people doing the growth management study) said, those developers who bought farmland have likely bought themselves just that, farmland. So that seems to put our property in a good position. Plus the neighbouring developer has plans for about 480 units (detached and semi's), which is being held up in the OMB process on technical issues only (the density being agreed to by the municipality).

Any insights/thoughts are always appreciated.

 

[Observer Walt]

I'm not sure that most of us here would have useful advice for you; it sounds like you're on top of the situation and well ahead of any advice we could give you.

I agree with your comments that the Province, pretty much by "fiat" as you say, has taken major steps to overrule many local planning initiatives. Planning down to the neighbourhood level is now largely taking place at Queen's Park.

Also agreed that some of the developers who bought farmland, pre - "Places to Grow", are going to be left holding the bag. Hope they can get the tractor fired up in the spring and get the crops in on time!

Best wishes.