I attended the OMB prehearing for the rezoning of the lands
in the Midhurst Mega development on July 3rd. As expected it was a lovefest
with the developers, lawyers and planners singing the praises of the new
proposed City of Midhurst and its potential 30,000 residents. I estimate the
costs for the high paid and extremely well prepared professional talent was
about $30,000 for the day, paid for by the landowners and development community.
No one was present to protect the interests of Springwater residents except for
the Midhurst Ratepayers Association who took the position of a Participant at
the hearing. Our high paid Springwater staff were window dressing and did not
comment on behalf of you and me. As mentioned in my last article, because of
pressure from the NVCA Board, which is comprised of our local elected officials
that favour development, the NVCA have now changed their original position that
the hearings were premature and opened the door for approval.
Your elected officials will argue that before building will
proceed there are a number of conditions that must be met such as Environmental
Assessment Studies, Financial Agreements and so forth. On the surface that
sounds like reasonable logic. Unfortunately if and when the OMB approves the
Mega development zoning, I will bet each of those conditions will be diluted to
the extent that the Springwater will be exposed to untold legacy costs. If we
had someone leading the Township that understood deal making, you would never
do a deal with a party that outguns you until all conditions are approved.
There is more than a subtle difference between approving a deal with conditions
as opposed to doing a deal where nothing can proceed until all conditions are
met. You will quickly see approvals for preliminary infrastructure work and
model homes. Once the ball gets rolling, the project becomes more difficult to
stop. The good news it can still be stopped if there is a political will.
I almost fell off my chair when I was speaking to one of our
councillors about the negative effect that this Midhurst Mega Development will
have on all of Springwater. Her reasoning was, “Why should Barrie get all those
tax dollars instead of Springwater?” Unfortunately this is the flawed
understanding of development charges and new tax dollars. In every fast growing
community such as Barrie, Mississauga and Vaughan the DC’s and new tax dollars
cover about 75% of actual costs leaving the municipality with increased debt
and higher taxes. That is why Barrie has DC’s of about $45,000 per unit and
another $4,500 surcharge for development in the annexed lands. Under new
leadership, namely Jeff Lehman, they are trying to correct the sins of poor
planning over the last 30 years. Currently 10% of your Springwater tax dollars
go to debt servicing rather than actual services. I see that quickly growing to
the maximum permitted which is 25% if the MSP proceeds. York Region has amassed
a 2 billion dollar debt because of this type of reasoning by their elected
officials requiring a huge amount of the high taxes going to debt servicing.
The Liberal government set aside all good planning policies by
granting the Midhurst Special Rule which allowed the MSP to proceed and only
two of our elected officials objected. It will take the same government to
reverse the MSP with a new Special Rule which they have full authority to
invoke. The MSP contravenes a number of policies in both the Provincial Policy
Statement and the Places to Grow legislation. It only approved the Midhurst
Special Rule because this council requested the approval and did not provide
any objection to the plan. The discussions and maneuvering was all orchestrated
behind closed doors.
I would like to correct any misunderstanding about my
position on growth in response to a call from one resident that stated I was
against progress due to my position on the Midhurst Mega City proposal. As I
have said since the 2010 election I fully support needed growth in all of our
communities especially jobs. I believe there should be a focus on completion of
growth in Elmvale which can support another 400 homes without any significant
additional cost for infrastructure. As a matter of fact you would see reduced
water and sewage bills as the services would be better utilized. I do not
support paving over prime farmland with City sized mega projects such as
Midhurst. For the last 25 years we have seen reasonably smart growth in the township
before the onslaught of the mega developers. Small developments in Elmvale,
Midhurst, Snow Valley, Apto, Minesing, Anten Mills, Fergusonvale, Phelpston and
Hillsdale have complimented the community and fit in nicely without destroying
the character of the communities. A lot of the labour and services were also
provided by local companies. What is proposed for Midhurst is a whole new game.
The developer admits they plan to create a model community as they have done
elsewhere (whatever that means!)
Oct 27th is quickly approaching. It is your last
chance to elect people that will stand up for the majority rather than the
well-financed few.
It’s you choice!
705-718-7031
