BRADFORD — An ongoing industrial development has been given more time to meet requirements, but is also under pressure to move to the next stage.
Based on a report from senior planner Thomas Dysart, Bradford council agreed to grant a two-year extension for draft plan of subdivision approval to Bond Head Properties for its industrial development on the northeast corner of Highway 400 and Line 5 (including 3550 and 3380 Line 5) during its regular council on Dec. 3.
That’s one year less than requested after Coun. Peter Ferragine noted the developer has already been granted two previous extensions. They have also completed work on water and sewers, and ongoing grading is expected to be finished in 2025.
“We’re trying to get these things completed and they shouldn’t drag on forever,” he said.
Those draft approvals normally expire after three years if developers haven’t completed the necessary work to meet the town’s conditions, and since first being approved in 2017, councils already approved two extensions, first in 2019 and again in 2023, which would have expired on Jan. 10, 2025.
The 39-hectare (96-acre) development is currently expected to include:
- Six blocks for employment, industrial, industrial/commercial
- Three blocks for future employment/environmental protection areas
- One block for environmental protection
- One block of buffer lands
- Two public roads with 26-metre and 23-metre rights of way.
Coun. Nickolas Harper agreed with Ferragine and speculated that recent work was done faster because the previous extension was also only two years instead of three.
“It’s a mandate of our council to emphasize we want to have shovels in the ground,” he said.
That was echoed by Coun. Ben Verkaik, who stressed the need to meet the demand for industrial/commercial land in Bradford.
“Let’s get these employment lands going, because people are looking for employment lands and we don’t have it,” he said.
While Mayor James Leduc said it was good to see progress over the last couple years and he's “glad that we pushed them,” he also noted the development was delayed between 2019 and 2023 after the roughly 29-hectare (72-acre) southern portion of the original 68-hectare (168-acre) site was severed and sold to Toromont, who later broke ground on their own facility in October 2022.
Before that, the mayor said there had also been delays relating to the construction of the new bridge and interchange for Line 5 at the highway, on which work lasted about three years, opening to the public in December 2018.
“They’ve shown some progress,” he said. “There’s a commitment from the developer to hopefully get this moving forward, because it is a prime location for further business with Toromont there now.”
In response to questions from councillors, Jennifer Best, the town’s director of growth services, explained meeting requirements for employment lands usually takes longer than the standard three-year draft approval period, and Alan Wiebe, manager of community planning, previously explained that it’s become “fairly frequent,” for developers of both residential and commercial developments to need multiple extensions depending on the size and complexity of projects.
In the meantime, the developer is working to finalize draft plan of subdivision conditions to meet full approval, according to Dysart.
