Efforts to open more of Bradford’s employment lands along Highway 400 took another step forward this week.
Committee of the whole recommended April 16 that council approve a new plan to eventually provide water and sewer services to the northeast section of the employment lands.
That came in response to a report from development and engineering services director Peter Loukes, which explained the northeast quadrant of those lands includes about 65 hectares east of the 400, north of County Road 88, south of Line 8 and extending about 500 metres east from McKinstry Road.
Once serviced, the area could become home to more industrial and commercial operations that rely on access to the highway, providing more job opportunities for residents and more tax revenue for the town.
“This has been on the books since the ’90s, and I’m glad to see this solution and that we’re going to move forward finally.” Ward 7 Coun. Peter Dykie said. “At the bottom line, there’s hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of assessment. ... We’re so lucky to have such highway exposure and there’s going to be so much opportunity for employment and assessment to the municipality. It’s such a positive thing.”
In the report, Loukes recommended providing water services by installing a watermain running north-south between the existing mains on Line 8 and McKinstry, as the later of those two mains extends about 300 m north of 88 before crossing under the highway to service lands in the west.
To provide sewer services, an existing trunk sewer along Line 6 east of the 400 is expected to be able to accommodate the northeast section once extended to 88. However Loukes cautioned that discussions over permission to dig the extension route through private properties are still ongoing and there is currently no timeline for that work to begin.
Even once the trunk line is extended to 88, further sewer lines would need to be built north into the employment lands, and in the meantime, policies in the town’s official plan limit the ability to develop those lands.
Further complicating matters, work by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to realign the interchange of the 400 and 88 is expected to include shifting the south portion of McKinstry about about 300 m east to align with the driveway of a service station to the south, and as part of that work the watermain is expected to be moved as well.
Additionally, the report notes a tributary of the North Schomberg River runs along the east side of the lands in a valley that drops 10 to 16 m, which the Lake Simcoe Regional Conservation Authority identified as a potential floodplain and that could limit the amount of room for development.
On the plus side, Loukes explained that the reduced elevation could make it easier to eventually install future sewer lines following the border of the flood plain, over which a re-aligned McKinstry could also be built.
In the meantime, Loukes recommended the existing road could be used in combination with temporary private septic systems to allow development to begin, while negotiations continue over the trunk extension.
That would help address the concerns of the six different owners of the 11 properties currently within those lands, some of whom have approached the town over the years asking how and when services would be available.
In response, council decided to undertake a review of the servicing plans in consultation with the owners and in 2022 hired The Planning Partnership, who completed their review throughout 2023.
This resulted in two main options to provide servicing, either under the existing McKinstry or under the new alignment to the east, which led to Loukes’ recommendation to use the existing road in the interim and building the realignment and sewer lines once the trunk becomes available.
“By not strictly adhering to one option, landowners are afforded the opportunity to develop earlier than they might otherwise,” he said.
The provincial infrastructure minister officially issued the boundary and permitted uses for the employment lands as a whole on Sept. 24, 2012, according to Ontario government documents, and Loukes’ report further explains that development within the lands began in 2018 with the Strathallen Industrial Park at the southwest corner of 88 and the 400. Since that time, development applications have generally been south of 88, including Toromont on Line 5 and Highlight Motors on Sideroad 5.
Recommendations from committee of the whole are considered for approval at the next regular council meeting.
