Walton's vision for New Tecumseth, 'generational'

Posted January 24, 2012

The CEO of a company whose holdings are worth more than $3 billion acknowledged last night that maybe they waited too long to publicly introduce themselves to the community in which they own about 4,000 acres of its rural and agricultural properties as speculative investments.

"Quite possibly it's long overdue, but we're here now," said Bill Doherty, of Walton Global Investments Ltd., who made the trip from Calgary to be at the New Tecumseth council meeting last night. "It is our intent to work and manage our assets to their highest and best use because our investment in your community, is a generational investment."

Mr. Doherty then turned the podium over to John Plastiras, President, Walton Development and Management, who provided a broad overview of how they envisioned moving forward in planning the future uses of their properties.

"Really, our request is this, first and foremost understand our operations take us across North America. We're not here to tell you 'this is how we do it in Calgary, this is how we do it in Phoenix, this is how we do it wherever the case may be," said Mr. Plastiras. "This is the Town of New Tecumseth. We're here to listen. We're actually very good listeners. So things we'd like to do with council and your administration is to work with you collaboratively to explore different ideas. (...) We'd like to prepare an initial vision for all of our land in New Tecumseth. We actually believe we have to take a comprehensive approach and a comprehensive approach isn't us driving necessarily our vision, it has to be genuine, it has to be real. This is your community, this is our community, we're partners."

Ward 7 councillor Bruce Haire said that it wasn't necessary to explain what the provincial government had just determined will be the population projections for New Tecumseth because Walton was represented at last Thursday's Growth Plan announcement by Ontario's Minister of Infrastructure.

"So you're up to date on our projected population, and right now, there's no room in those numbers for you," said Mr. Haire. "You'd almost have to contact the Province to get us better numbers, and we haven't even talked about getting better numbers since that meeting."

Mr. Plastiras said they are aware of the provincial planning policies and the constraints within them, but noted that Walton was not intending any quick exits from town. They also own 100 acres of property that's encompassed in the Mattamy/Cappuccitti proposed 15,000 unit subdivision. Walton also owns property in Everett and has been lobbying Adjala-Tosorontio council for residential development.

"It's not an end result we're looking for here. We're saying, 'what is the realm of possibilities here? As Mr Doherty said, we are generational. We're not talking five years or 10 years or 15 years. We're talking a long term horizon."

The other side of the coin, said Mayor Mike MacEachern, is Walton's proposal to develop a 12-unit industrial subdivision on the south side of Industrial Parkway at Church Street South covering more than 62 hectares. He noted the Town was eager to help them move it along the process.

"We certainly want to see it get to the building stage, and you probably do as well," said the mayor. "I know with that, and anytime you're looking at a (commercial/industrial) project and approaching staff, they're going to be very receptive in trying to help you move along those kind of projects."

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