If Innisfil builds up its north end with major employment development, how will it affect Barrie?
Will there be major traffic concerns?
How will it be serviced?
How will an influx of new industry affect Highway 400?
These are just some of the questions City of Barrie director of planning Michelle Banfield hoped would be answered when she forwarded a letter to the province in December outlining the city's planning concerns around an expansion of the Innisfil Heights Strategic Settlement Employment Area, which would see the boundary moved to abut on the southern boundary of the City of Barrie.
But when Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin saw the letter, she had questions of her own.
“My very first thought was, many of the questions in the letter could be answered very quickly by any of our staff. If members of their council or staff had questions, they could have picked up the phone and got the answers,” said Dollin.
“A good paying job in Innisfil, Barrie, or Springwater or Bradford or anywhere in our area... this is a time to shine for our entire region. We have exciting projects we’re moving forward with,” she said. “We all have to think about the end user and making their life better.”
The Innisfil Heights Strategic Settlement Employment Area, located along Highway 400, is an area identified by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing under the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe to create high-quality jobs in the manufacturing and industrial sectors. The Town of Innisfil, with support from the County of Simcoe, requested an expansion of the existing employment area to the northeast and northwest above 9th Line to the boundary of the City of Barrie; and south to the 6th Line.
“From any neighbour perspective, you always want your neighbour to do well, but sometimes what they do right next to you does have an impact," Banfield said in an interview with BarrieToday. "Fundamentally, that’s the bigger piece. What happens there, right next to our boundary, is going to ultimately have an impact on the City of Barrie."
Banfield said since the province is the entity doing the consultation, that’s why the letter was the most appropriate course of action for airing concerns, rather than meeting with or calling Innisfil directly.
“The process said to contact the province, so that’s what we did,” she said. “Innisfil wasn’t doing the consultation, the province was.”
Some questions in the letter included whether Innisfil had completed a land-needs assessment, whether the town had reviewed the potential impacts this proposed expansion may have on the transportation network, and whether the province will require the same infrastructure improvements of Innisfil as Barrie has for development in the city's south end.
The letter also asks questions about servicing of the area.
Banfield said the southern part of Barrie that abuts Innisfil is also planned as employment land, so the city doesn’t necessarily see an issue with conflicting land uses being next to each other.
“There isn’t an issue with the land use, it’s more about, is it needed at this time, in this area?” said Banfield. “Or, does it make more sense for the existing Innisfil Heights area to get built out, and then fill in the difference? Typically, you don’t look to push a boundary until what’s inside existing boundaries is already built out.”
Dollin said the expansion idea was born from Innisfil’s undertaking of a master servicing plan.
“We wanted the master servicing plan to align with the Innisfil Heights (plans). It also makes a better business case. The cost of the servicing could be spread out among a larger area, making it more cost effective,” the mayor said.
“We’re getting phone calls from interested investors, and we believe our employment area and Barrie’s would complement each other,” added Dollin, but declined to name potential investors.
Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman said Barrie and Innisfil’s shared interests in bringing jobs to the region has always existed and will continue.
“In my opinion, a difference of opinion about whether this employment land expansion is good planning does not change the fact that the town and the city are working together on a number of issues,” he said. “Neighbours may not always agree, but that doesn't mean they don’t work together on the many other issues on which they do.”
Since the public consultation period closed in December, Banfield said there have been meetings between Innisfil and Barrie to address concerns and questions.
“We’re committed to working with Innisfil and the province to resolve this,” said Banfield.
