The way Bradford doles out funding for local properties and businesses could be changing.
Jonathan Hack of Sierra Planning and Management presented an update for the community improvement plan (CIP) to council on Dec. 19, which included an outline of ways in which the program could evolve moving forward.
The CIP program offers incentives, especially grants, to encourage specific types of development and investment in town, most commonly for the redevelopment of older buildings in the municipality's historic downtown. But that could change as the program is required to be reviewed every two to three years.
“We have to ask the question: what are we trying to achieve in the CIP?” Hack said.
Council is expected to participate in a workshop sometime in 2024 to determine what, if any, changes should be made to the program, including expanding to areas like Bond Head or new sectors like agriculture and affordable housing, with those revisions expected to be ready for roll out sometime in 2025.
“The job in 2024 is to define program possibilities,” Hack said.
Currently the town has three CIP programs, for downtown (DCIP), the industrial areas (IACIP) and a suspended program for seniors housing (SHCIP).
The CIP programs were implemented in 2012 with help from Hack, who has also guided every review of the programs since then, including most recently in 2022, according to Michael Kemp, marketing coordinator for the town’s office of economic development.
This time around, Hack acknowledged interest in expanding the CIP program to include the growing Bond Head area, but suggested holding off until it is fully municipally serviced.
“We have to be careful that any level of assistance is going to have the best impact that it can.” he said, adding that simply copying the downtown CIP to Bond Head probably wouldn’t work well.
Hack was also wary of funding incentives for the Highway 400 employment lands, saying they are already desirable and don’t need the assistance in attracting private investment.
“There isn’t always that much money to spend. You have to make choices,” he said.
Hack did see other areas worth the investment, though.
“Bradford West Gwillimbury as a municipality is not the same as it was a dozen years ago when we started. So you have to be able to move to meet the actual challenges that do exist, and I guess the main challenge that’s risen in the last few years is that of affordable housing,” Hack said, noting that the previous push from 2012 for more housing of any type in the downtown was less relevant now.
While acknowledging that provincial Bill 23, is “not the easiest legislation to understand,” Hack explained one aspect encourages more affordable housing. But he felt the town should only attempt to tackle the issue in conjunction with the County of Simcoe.
Even though the county “has not been slack in any way,” on the matter, Hack warned that “to have any kind of movement on affordable housing requires all levels of government.”
The program could also expand into providing more support for the agricultural sector, with Hack using examples of Prince Edward County and Niagara Region which include a tourism aspect.
“I don’t have to remind anyone of the importance of the agriculture sector to the town of Bradford West Gwillimbury,” he said, but suggested the program would be better suited to helping with on-farm retail or agri-tourism rather than typical farming operations. “What do you need to do if you want to put people on your farm, so you can generate retail sales?”
Hack suggested the agricultural CIP should focus more on things like signage or accessory buildings that could be used for sales or as a bed and breakfast for example.
“There’s a need to go a little bit slowly on the agricultural side of things; there’s some research that needs to be done,” he said.
Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper supported that research and suggested the program should also support housing for farm workers, noting local farms have already been coming to council for that support, including Gwillimdale Farms in September.
In terms of what is already working, Hack praised the existing “simple and effective suite of programs,” especially the “very successful” downtown CIP, for providing an estimated $2.88 million over the years, which he estimated brought in a ratio of private funding close to six to one, “which is very positive.”
While Hack acknowledged the need to continue support for downtown, he and Kemp also recommended putting that element of the program on pause during the revitalization of Holland Street and the construction that is expected to come with it, potentially in 2025.
As a result, council voted to place the downtown program on a one-year hiatus starting Jan. 1, with no new CIPs to be considered until 2025, but applications already underway will be allowed to proceed.
Harper had concerns about that timeline, and Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott wanted to push the hiatus date until March 31, 2024, to give people more time to apply before council begins work to potentially change the CIPs. However, Mayor James Leduc assured them there are already “a bunch of applications in the works,” and being on hiatus didn’t completely shut off the program, meaning if necessary, council will “still have the opportunity to open this up.”
Some recent examples of downtown buildings to benefit from the CIP program include 37 Holland St. W. and 11, 19, 27, 80 and 152 Holland St. E.
Frequent outspoken critic of certain aspects of the downtown CIP, Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferrragine, was absent from the meeting.
