The idea of the city annexing land from its neighbours was challenged during a virtual open house Wednesday.
After being directed by the province to plan to accommodate a population of 49,000 as well as 26,000 jobs by 2051, it was determined the city would need an additional 380 hectares of land.
Wednesday’s open house was intended to focus not on annexation, but rather to discuss the planning process to help inform staff and consultants as they work to find the best vacant, undeveloped land surrounding Orillia for future expansion.
Annexation made its way into the conversation, though, in questions and comments provided by some of the approximately 200 people who registered for the open house.
Some asked why the city has to abide by the growth targets prescribed as part of the province’s Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
Jill Lewis, the city’s senior planner, said that was a question for the province, but she added it is staff’s responsibility to make recommendations to council, “which is a creature of the province.”
Oro-Medonte resident Sandy Agnew said he understood planners have to follow regulations, but he noted the City of Hamilton is “pushing back on what the province is telling them.”
“I think the citizens and the residents of Orillia and the surrounding area, this is not something that they’re looking for — major growth in population,” Agnew said. “I would urge the council to take a second look at this and reject the province’s bullying to force the city to take that population.”
Orillia resident Danny Epstein suggested it didn’t make sense to plan for growth 30 years from now without having a local strategy in place.
“What’s really missing here is a 30-year, community-based vision that would actually be driving what development we want in this city,” he said.
If the goal is to become a sustainable city, a plan is needed, he added.
Without such a plan, “what you’re doing is sort of going forward without really acknowledging what we, as a community, perceive what Orillia should be 30 years from now.”
There are numerous steps in the process, which started in 2018, Lewis responded, saying at this stage, the goal is to figure out where the best land for expansion can be found.
One of the next steps will be for the city to update its Official Plan, which is a vision for the coming decades. As part of that plan, the city is obligated to take into consideration provincial directions, including the Provincial Policy Statement, the growth plan and the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan.
Over the past decade-plus, Lewis added, the province has become “very involved” in the direction municipalities are going.
One participant asked how the province’s growth plan came about.
“It was generally developed to try and ensure that growth was happening in an orderly way,” said Greg Bender, senior manager with consulting firm WSP Canada.
Many municipalities were growing via sprawl and were not considering different types of housing, with much of the focus being on single-detached homes.
“Development was happening in a haphazard way and the province, at the time, felt that they needed to step in to ensure it was happening in an orderly fashion,” he said.
“The province has the ability, should a municipality not conform … to remove its planning approvals until such time as it conforms to that document.”
Donald Macdonald, a Ramara Township farmer, said Orillia “needs to grow up, not creep and crawl.”
“The province needs to smarten up its past thinking and we should be looking ahead,” he said, adding he was concerned about the effects on agricultural lands.
“As a farmer, we don’t have a hope in hell, and it’s not proper ... “
“We need to evaluate agricultural lands that surround the municipality and try to avoid the best ones,” Bender responded.
He noted earlier in the meeting the goal will be to avoid areas where there could be a potential to affect water quality and quantity, high-priority agricultural land and provincially significant wetlands.
Bob Bowles, an Orillia resident who is a certified wetland evaluator, pointed to the flooding that is happening in other parts of the country.
He noted there are both evaluated and unevaluated wetlands in Orillia. Some unevaluated ones are designated as development land, he said, and he wanted to know if there was a plan to change their designation to protected.
Bender said, as part of this process, the focus area is outside of the city’s current boundary. That includes unevaluated wetlands, which officials will try to avoid, he added.
Some members of Sustainable Orillia, including Fred Larsen, were also on hand to share their concerns.
“If the future of Orillia is to be a sustainable community, we’re going to have to preserve agricultural lands around that community and we’re going to have to avoid sprawl that takes us out to those agricultural lands and takes us adjacent to waterways and so on,” he said, adding the first priority should be to figure out what type of intensification can be achieved.
“It’s very difficult to accommodate industrial parks and business parks through intensification,” Lewis responded. “We do want to have a complete community where we can live, work and play” while being able to accommodate the target of 26,000 jobs.
A man who owns a “substantial piece of property” in Ramara said he is about to apply for a severance and undertake an environmental assessment. He asked if the boundary review process the city is going through will be “one more roadblock” for him and if it would affect growth plans in the township.
Lewis advised him to continue his process with the township, following its planning documents.
It will take at least a couple of years before any changes are made to Orillia’s boundaries, she added.
“It’s a long planning process that we are embarking on, so you’re best just to stay the course in terms of adhering to the township planning documents that you are beholden to today.”
She was also asked about how the process of acquiring neighbouring land would play out.
It would require negotiation between the city, the affected municipalities and the County of Simcoe, she explained.
The Municipal Act mandates public meetings be held in all affected municipalities and that the majority of support be obtained from those municipalities, the City of Orillia and the county.
If an agreement can’t be reached, the province could force annexation. That was the case when Barrie annexed land from Innisfil in 2010.
Wednesday’s open house was part of Phase 1 of the process. Phase 2 will be the technical evaluation, which will include consultation and a report that will focus on a natural heritage assessment, municipal servicing review, fiscal analysis and more, while Phase 3 will include identifying settlement boundary expansion land and presenting a report with recommendations.
That report is expected to come forward in the third quarter of 2022.
For more information about the process, click here.
