Council approves development freeze for all new applications

– Photo from thecounty.ca website

UPDATE: Bylaw approved at council’s Nov. 26 meeting.

By Sharon Harrison
The County is putting a hold on all new third-party development applications in the urban centres of Picton, Bloomfield and Wellington, for one year, with the option of a further one-year extension.

At Wednesday’s planning and development committee meeting, with little discussion or debate, council voted in favour of the interim control bylaw, on the advice of planning staff, which means the municipality will no longer accept planning applications for the duration.

Applications deemed complete prior to Dec. 1, 2024, will remain in the process, though the timing for allocation of services would not be guaranteed.

Council’s decision is to be enacted at the next regular council meeting on Nov. 26.

Councillors were told the need for the interim control bylaw is a result of there being no servicing capacity to facilitate future development, and there are already developments in the queue for approval above and beyond existing servicing capacity.

Interim control bylaws are a land use planning tool that place a temporary prohibition or limitation on development of certain lands while a municipality is studying or reviewing its development policies. All new third-party applications will be restricted pending the completion of the development charges study, and the financial strategy for the required new growth-related infrastructure.

While no new development will be permitted, exemptions include any part-lot control applications and minor variance applications. Also exempted are those development applications that have been submitted for review, have been deemed complete or have been placed on technical circulation, those that are approved and have service allocation, or any third-party applications that council deems acceptable.

The proposed development at the former Queen Elizabeth School is also exempt from this decision.

Councillor Phil St-Jean said the County’s affordable housing projects should also be considered a priority, noting specifically the Niles Street project in Wellington (former Duke Dome) and the Disraeli Street project be exempted, to which planning co-ordinator Angela Buonamici confirmed both are already under the exemptions. The deputy clerk also noted a request received for exemption regarding the zoning bylaw amendment application for 433 Main St., (Angeline’s Inn) Bloomfield.

St-Jean also noted that interim control bylaws rarely take just 12 months, with councillor Kate MacNaughton also expressing concern about whether it could be done within a year.

The DC (development charges) bylaw is expected to take four to six months to complete, where CAO Marcia Wallace confirmed the DC bylaw is currently out for tender, and is expected to close by the end of November, to be awarded by December.

A consultant is to be retained to complete the development charges background study which will be County-wide.

“It would address the revenue generation need for water and wastewater infrastructure in Wellington and Picton where the proposed development is concentrated,” said Buonamici. “Bloomfield is included as it currently receives water servicing from the Picton system.”

Wallace said the County is legislated under the development charges act in terms of the timeline and the public consultation, but indicated the intention is to have it completed by the middle of 2025 (providing someone is willing to take the study on).

“Providing we get a bid within the price value, we would move forward and it will be done well before the one-year mark in terms of giving us a path forward,” Wallace said.

The pause will permit the municipality to undertake a development charges study to assess and develop the appropriate locations and timing for infrastructure and services and develop a capital plan to undertake required infrastructure projects.

“There is a considerable amount of housing units at a significantly advanced stage of planning approvals, and this exceeds the available infrastructure servicing capacity available to date,” states Buonamici, in her report.

Wallace spoke to how important it was to take this step, but also called it “a little bit of a symbolic one as well.

“The thought of stopping development and not letting applications come forward is a pretty extreme step to take, but we have so many units that are moving through the process, and not everything in the process always makes it all the way through and gets built.”

She also spoke to infrastructure needs being dire.

“We really need to not muddy waters with more projects coming in who claim to have a better idea than what is already moving through the system,” she said. “So we want to show the development community that we are going to play fair because there are going to be some tough decisions that are going to have to be made in the coming years.”

“There are approximately 8,000 units of proposed development projects that required the regional water treatment plant or would not be able to proceed, as the existing capacity of both the Wellington and Picton Water Plans are insufficient.”

– Picton lands subject to development freeze

The developments in Picton and Wellington are estimated to build 4,200 units by 2032, and a total of 8,700 units by 2043.

“The existing water treatment plants in Wellington and Picton do not have sufficient surplus capacity to meet the current growth and unit demands expected by 2032.”

The report states the Picton water treatment plant has the equivalent of approximately 2,200 single dwelling residential units of capacity remaining (with approximately 5,400 units in the planning approvals process).

– Wellington lands subject to development freeze

The Wellington water treatment plant has the equivalent of approximately 335 single dwelling residential units of capacity remaining (with 2,650 units in the planning approvals process).

Buonamici states a new wastewater treatment plant is “imperative. Approximately 2,800 units of proposed development project would not be able to proceed without it, as there is currently no capacity available within the existing Wellington wastewater treatment plant,” she stated.

The approved developments with a strong likelihood of imminent construction are estimated at 1,000 units by 2032, and a total of 2,800 units by 2043.

The existing water and wastewater treatment plant in Wellington does not have surplus capacity to meet the growth and unit demands expected by 2032. Whereas the Wellington water plant has 335 units of capacity remaining, the Wellington wastewater treatment plant has no capacity remaining, she notes.

Regarding the Picton wastewater treatment plant, there is approximately 340 single residential dwelling units of capacity remaining.

“Developments that are in the process of obtaining approvals, but do not have allocation, are approximately 6,500 units. As such, the interim control bylaw is appropriate to establish the development controls to allow for the required infrastructure upgrades.”

– Bloomfield lands subject to development freeze

Wallace said, there is a serious need for infrastructure in the community if it is going to move forward.

“A number of projects have come before the planning committee that have received draft plan of sub-division or zoning approval, that if they were all ready to build tomorrow would not be able to leverage servicing because there isn’t enough for everyone.”

“It is quite serious, so this is also to send a signal to everyone that we understand how important servicing and financing really is in terms of achieving the ultimate goal of housing supply and affordable housing in our community.”