CENTRE WELLINGTON – Despite best efforts from several developers to make it bigger, the township has endorsed local urban boundary expansions as recommended.
Approved at a Centre Wellington council meeting Monday evening, settlement area boundary expansion lands (SABE) recommendations would add five areas in Fergus on all sides of the town and two Elora areas at the south end of the village, representing about 43 hectares of community land in Elora and 89 hectares in Fergus, as well as a total of 194 hectares of employment land in both for a total of 805 acres.
This would increase the intensification rate from 40 people and jobs per hectare to 53 people and jobs per hectare.
"We have to start somewhere ... I think people need to be clear these decisions are not coming without major considerations to where this community is growing and going," said Mayor Shawn Watters. "Yes, it would be nice to bring everybody in but that's the implications – it's the difference between 56 and 100,000 (people)."
Addressing several delegations from developers and their representatives both at last night's meeting and on Oct. 15 asking that additional land be added to the proposed urban boundary, a new report from Centre Wellington’s managing director of planning and development Brett Salmon says while there may be other land parcels that also satisfy the settlement area boundary expansion criteria, the number of requests for land to be added exceeds the identified need under both the County base scenario and the township's preferred scenario.
According to staff, the land amount within the recommended SABE matches the land need approved by council on Sept. 30 for community and employment purposes and adding land would "be contrary" to the council's stated goal of "reducing the extent of Prime Agriculture Area to be added to the urban boundary."
"It isn't that some of these other parcels that have come forward don't meet the criteria, or were excluded because they didn't meet the criteria- there are more lands that meet the criteria than there is the need," said Salmon. There are currently 973 hectares worth of requests from developers.
While supportive of the recommendation's majority at the meeting, Councillor Jennifer Adams said she remains a little concerned about the employment lands on the south end of the South Fergus Secondary Pan before questioning how the township will get builder's building.
Salmon said staff are considering reducing the draft approval on a subdivision from five to three years and are working with the township's legal counsel on a service allocation policy.
"So it will be use it or lose it," said Salmon. "When you get a draft approval of a plan of subdivision, you will be expected to proceed with serving and register that plan within three years or you will lose your draft approval."
The County of Wellington will now develop an amendment to its official plan as necessary to implement the township's recommended SABE.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
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