Plan that grows Everett to 10,000 people, to public next week

Posted November 1, 2012

A two hour "Public consultation for the Everett Secondary Plan, Boundary Adjustment and Master Servicing Plan" will take place Thurs., Nov. 8 as an open house/information centre, with a question period starting at 7:30 pm.

The session, which starts at 7 pm at the Adjala-Tosorontio Administration Centre (7855 30 Sideroad Adjala), will revolve around the various presentations that together make up a proposed secondary plan that would enlarge the settlement area around Everett to a population of 10,000 people over the next 25 years. It's currently about 2,000 residents.

It would also include about 200,000 sq. ft of commercial space, including a full-service grocery story, 50,000 sq. ft of main street development to create a "pedestrian community core area."

The Secondary Plan also provides for public and a Catholic elementary schools, but will not require a high school.

And while there wouldn't be a large enough population to operate an indoor swimming pool, "the Seconday Plan Area could trigger sufficient population to warrant the construction of a shared facility in Alliston," according to the accompanying Commercial and Institutional Land Needs Analysis.

However, there are significant limiting factors that put this plan on a long road and winding road toward approval, not just at the County level, but provincially, since it runs contrary to the recently adopted growth plans that will guide planning in Simcoe County for the next 25 years.

The "Simcoe specific amendment" holds to a hard population projection of 667,000 people by 2031 with the bulk of that directed to designated "primary settlement areas," itself a new moniker that replaces the term, "urban nodes."

Any additional growth for a project like this one in Everett, would likely come from the 20,000 population the Province granted as a compromise in striking the amendment, in "reserve" that the County is to redistribute. How, that will be allocated has yet to be determined.

As well, there are servicing issues involving water supply and waste water treatment gaps that are not easily overcome, and in all likelihood will involve cross municipal agreements.

The Master Servicing Report for this plan was done by Greenland International Consulting, based in Collingwood. Greenland was also commissioned by Simcoe County to develop and Water and Wastewater Visioning Strategy, which among its recommendations was to connect Everett to the sewage plant in Angus, which has unused additional capacity. Greenland had also recommended Angus capacity be used to service growth in New Lowell. Essa has rejected both options.

A desktop water service analysis carried out for Greenland by Golder Associates, Barrie, concludes that there is not enough capacity in Everett to service the new growth. In fact, it's operating beyond its scope currently.

In summary, the existing yield of the wells in the Community of Everett are operating at or above what is generally considered to be the safe design rate for the respective wells, given the screen length and slot size at the wells," according to a report signed by John Easton, Senior Hydrogeologist, with Golder. "The aquifer thickness in the Everett area is fairly consistent at 5.9 to 8.8 m and the median grain size of the aquifer, as judged by the slot sizes that have been selected for water wells is approximately 0.4 mm (or equivalent to a well screen slot number of 16). The likelihood of building water supply wells with yields significantly greater than the existing wells is considered low."

Buying water/access from New Tecumseth via the pipeline, is the immediate alternative.

The R&M Homes subdivision is serviced by a small treatment plant with a network of gravity sewers built large enough to accommodate approximately 1,600 people. But not large enough to accommodate the additional demands.

"In practical terms however, the New Horizons subsurface wastewater treatment plant has limited residual capacity and experiences regular maintenance issues. It will be unable to service any additional development, and the Township has expressed an interest in eventually decommissioning the facility. The loss of this 595 equivalent person servicing capacity would place the total municipal servicing capacity at 2,200 equivalent persons (i.e. the proposed R&M Homes WWTP only), resulting in servicing gap of 1,193 persons under existing and "as designed" in process conditions," according to Greenland's report. "It should be noted that the current design for the R&M Homes WWTP does not include provisions for future developments. On this basis, additional wastewater treatment and collection system solutions will need to be investigated in order to meet the Township's stated goal of providing sanitary servicing to existing residents, and to meet future development objectives within the Everett Secondary Plan area. Given the proximity of the Study Area to the Pine River, and the inherent servicing issues associated with subsurface discharge systems servicing large populations, it is recommended that alternative wastewater treatment options be investigated in more detail (e.g. surface water discharge system) for future development conditions."

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