Midland is looking to expand its footprint and that path to growth starts with a secondary planning study for County Road 93 that council approved at its meeting last week.
In a conversation with MidlandToday, Wes Crown, Midland's director of planning and building services, talked in detail about a request for proposals the town will create for the study.
The plan identifies five vacant lots off of County Road 93, three of which are owned by Pine Valley Homes, which is willing to fund the consultants that will be hired by the town, Crown said.
“The reason for doing that is by the town hiring the consultants, it keeps it objective, professional and guided by what's in the long-term best public interest of the town as opposed to being guided by the developer themselves,” said Crown.
The other two properties in the study area are owned by Mountainvew Mall Limited and Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation, both of whom have declined to fund or participate in the study, he said.
The combined five properties comprise about 80 hectares, or a little less than 200 acres.
Crown noted the lands were formerly part of Tiny Township, but were annexed by the Town of Midland in the early '90s.
“Since then the town has said, 'We need this detailed planning study before we can approve new development in that area,'” Crown said. “The lands really have been on hold since the late '80s and early '90s and this is the time for the town to see some growth in that area.
“The timing is perfect because my sense is that the town has started to run out of shovel-ready development land,” he noted. “These are vacant lands that have full municipal services that we have available for development.”
Council has been pretty favourable of the study, Crown said..
“So we need to do these kinds of future planning studies to get stuff started to go,” he said. “I think it makes good planning sense to continue to plan for the development and growth of the town.”
Crown said he could not confirm what kind of development would happen on the parcels of land behind Mountainview Plaza, Real Canadian Superstore, Rona Midland, and the Beer Store.
“The study itself will determine what are the most appropriate land uses for that area,” he said. “It could be residential, it could be commercial, it could be employment (light industrial or other similar uses), or it could be a combination. The study will drive what is the future vision for that area of town. And it really has to be cognizant of who the abutting landowners are," said Crown.
Once the consultation is complete, a broader public consultation will be held, Crown said.
“That way, we will consult with the neighbours in the neighbourhood, we will run the various scenarios by them,” he said. “The Planning Act requires that everybody within 400-metres of those properties be consulted and notified. Typically, a planning study includes a broader public consultation. So a notice will be shared in the media, on our website and social media, inviting the Midland community to take part in the consultation.”
James Petrie, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Plaza Reit, the company that owns Mountainview Mall in Midland, said the plaza favours residential development near its shopping centres as a general rule.
“It's not uncommon to put residential near malls these days,” he said. “A lot of that has been happening in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver but it's starting to happen in smaller markets on the east coast, too. People tend to want to live where there are shops and restaurants.”
And if it’s commercial, said Petrie, the company would have to see more detail about what it would look like.
“We own a bit of the wooded area behind the mall,” he said. “We never really inquired as to the zoning of surrounding land. It would be interesting to see what is proposed in the study and if residential use is something corporate would look into if it was supported as a use on the adjoining lands.”
