Innisfil staff are hopeful, but non-committal, that construction work will begin on the Orbit development later this year, following the approval of a secondary plan to help guide the project.
In a recorded vote, council approved the plan unanimously at its Feb. 28 meeting.
Hurdles remain before the document comes into effect, including approval from the County of Simcoe, which can’t occur until the Ontario government approves the county’s Official Plan Amendment 7. Once a decision is rendered, an appeals process begins, which could create further delays and prove costly for the municipality.
Still, the document in front of council is one they’re happy with. They were told by David Sajecki — a consultant with Sajecki Planning, who along with Weston Williamson and Partners and Hatch, developed the plan for the town — that “with great growth comes great responsibility.”
Part of that responsibility is to create a structure that can be used throughout the development of the Orbit project and establish how development applications on the subject lands will be considered.
Town planning and growth director Andria Leigh felt the municipality and the consultants found the compromise needed to appease both interests.
“It sets that framework of the specifics of what would then be considered in each development application going forward,” she said. “The details would be implemented through those specific condominium or site plan applications.”
Leigh’s comments came in response to a line of questioning from Mayor Lynn Dollin, who noticed the stark contrast between the comments received from the Cortel Group, one of the property owners and developers of Orbit, and representatives from the Williams Treaty First Nations. The developers believed the plan as drafted was too prescriptive in several areas, Dollin noted, while the First Nations consulted felt the plan was not descriptive enough.
“It's very much a delicate balance between wanting to have the right level of concrete direction with this secondary plan but wanting to provide a level of flexibility to applicants as they come forward with applications,” Sajecki said. “The secondary plan very much sets the policies against which development applications will be reviewed.”
It also spells out the areas where there is wiggle room for the town and developers through the use of the word “should” in clauses, versus issues where the municipality wants to remain firm and goes with the word “shall” instead.
Working on solving concerns at this stage, before enacting the plan, is important, said chief administrative officer Oliver Jerschow, because even though it is an essential tool in municipal planning, it has its limits.
“As much as we seek to plan comprehensively and in a holistic way for the development of any community, including the Orbit, there are limits to what any municipality can do, under the (Ontario) Planning Act,” he said. “That puts some legal limits on the town’s ability to require things — in general, municipalities have to operate within the province’s legal framework — and while we can certainly advocate for things that we believe in when push comes to shove there are certain things the municipality has legal authority to do and other things it does not have the legal authority to do.”
The plan covers the roughly 800 acres that make up the proposed Orbit development, a multi-decade project that could house 90,000 people and 20,000 jobs before the end of the century.
The secondary plan will be reviewed and revised every five years, evolving as required following each review.
In August 2021, a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) was issued for two transit-orientated communities (TOC) encompassing lands within a 425-metre radius of the proposed GO Station on 6th Line. As directed by the MZO, TOC 1 shall have a minimum density of 200 dwelling units per hectare and buildings between six and 40 storeys tall, while TOC 2 requires a minimum density of 150 dwelling units per hectare and buildings between four and 15 storeys, with an exception of up to 25 storeys for buildings fronting onto 6th Line.
A third TOC, making up most of the Orbit’s land, remains outside of the planning window to 2051, and not covered by the MZO’s scope. The approved secondary plan ties all three TOCs together, giving the town a cohesive document to guide the Orbit development over the next seven decades.
Cortel’s first comment on the document concerned how the MZO and secondary plan interacted.
“TOC 1 and TOC 2 are subject to MZO. Should be made explicitly clear on all of the proposed schedules to the Draft Secondary Plan, so it is clear where land use permissions have already been established,” the developer commented. “All land use, density and height permissions are accordingly set out in the MZO, and there should not be any conflicting policies or schedules contained within the draft Secondary Plan.”
That was a clarification the town was willing to make, revising the Secondary Plan to dictate how the MZO permissions supersede directions from the Secondary Plan.
“Permissions cover the entirety of Orbit,” the town wrote. “While it is acknowledged that the MZO permissions prevail, policies that cover TOC 1 and TOC 2 are relevant to provide the intent of the Secondary Plan. Policies provide direction that may be implemented, even if they do not have statutory power where an MZO permission prevails.”
Cortel also had concerns about the secondary plan veering too close to a specific demonstration of how the Orbit could be developed, and requested more flexibility “to facilitate the evolution of a transit supportive complete community that takes into consideration the various goals and objectives, but without being constrained by such a prescriptive and detailed land use, height, density, and parkland schedules.”
The demonstration plan suggests the development could house 25,000 people and 5,000 jobs by 2051.
“The demonstration Plan represents one way in which Orbit could develop based on the vision, goals, guiding principles, policies and schedules contained within the Secondary Plan,” the town replied. “Greater flexibility has been introduced throughout the Secondary Plan to allow for site-specific planning without being bound to overly prescriptive policies.”
Resident Jon Stillich also hoped for the town to show greater flexibility by deferring a decision on how TOC 3 fit into the Secondary Plan. For Stillich, the densities projected out to 2091 were too great, and for a genuine community to spring up, a better mix of livable space, smaller dwellings and parkland was required than what was being proposed.
He suggested to councillors that development at a greater density than what currently exists in Alcona is required, but not nine times the current density, which he projected would be the case with TOC3.
Stillich’s delegation was received by councillors without question and did not spur them to make changes to the plan.
He was the latest in a long line of residents and other concerned parties to provide opinions on the plan and the entire Orbit project.
“There has been significant community consultation throughout this process,” Leigh said. “We’ve tried to balance all of those inquiries and requests in terms of the policies that have been brought forward."
