Town concerned with 'breadth and extent' of Hwy 89 zoning in
Adjala
Posted October
16, 2012
Adjala-Tosorontio is pressing forward with its plan to create a
commercial industrial and light industrial zone on both sides of Hwy 89
between Cty Rd 50 to the west, to the Alliston boundary line, east.
The comprehensive zoning amendment would permit more than 40 different
uses ranging from agricultural commercial to retail, to dry industrial.
Last night, New Tecumseth Manager of Planning Eric Chandler said
there's concern with the "breadth and extent of the uses that would be
permitted as a right if
the zoning goes through as they've proposed and there hasn't been any
assessment of impact."
Specifically, New Tecumseth has issues with proposed retail uses that
would have an impact on the downtown businesses.
Simcoe County's Official Plan, which supercedes the lower tier
policies, obligates the Township to provide market impact studies as
part of this process. Mr. Chandler said he doesn't believe any those
reports have been commissioned.
"Generally, to be objective about it, Adjala Tos should be completing a
market feasibilty analysis that then we could peer review to see if we
agree with it or not," he said.
He was seeking direction, which was provided, to send Adjala-Tosorontio
a letter outling the Town's concerns.
"Then if they chose not to address our
concerns prior to it going to council at least we're on record and
that's important as far as the process is concerned that we be on
record as it enables us to proceed as we wish thereafter if we wish to
appeal," said Mr. Chandler. "They're already aware we have a concern. I
think a good next
step is, not all the uses they're proposing will impact on our
downtown, so we need to come down to kind of a scoped message to them
as to which uses we think at the outset would appear to impact on the
downtowns."
Ward 2 councillor Jamie Smith, whose preamble suggested annexation as
an option, said his concern wasn't just focused on downtown.
"This whole area is competitive
with our community and they've already succeeded in attracting two or
three businesses from Alliston that are operating more cheapely out
there, and in the long run there should be some sort of cooperative
solution with them about servicing and a number of other things," he
said. "It
seems to me this is an extension of commercial lands that we may not
need in the area and end up as surplus."
Ward 8 councillor Jim Stone predicted that if the zoning amendment was
approved, Adjala-Tosorontio would be asking New Tecumseth to provide
the services required.
"I can see some time down the road if this went through they'd be
coming
to us for some type of servicing because of the failure of the systems
that were installed in the first place," said Mr. Stone. "You've got
only so much water
in the ground, and if you have several businesses drawing out of the
same area, same sewage aspect, is there some kind of standard that
would accommodate that kind of thing?"
Mr. Chandler said restrictions have already been implemented that would
limit the uses to dry industry because of the lack of water.
"With respect to how they're going to service
these, the only indication we've had thus far from Adjala Tosorontio is
they be on individual septic and well per site. How many lots could be
accommodated in that manner would be up to the MOE to determine.
They've held the open house with this conceptual plan, I'm not privy to
any comments that they've received, their next step will be to take the
information from their open house and determine what they'll do next.
They still want to push forward with a zoning amendment."
