Prince Edward County News countylive.ca

Sharon Harrison
The County is suspending all new third-party construction applications in the Picton, Bloomfield and Wellington town centers for one year, with the possibility of a further one-year extension.

At a planning and development committee meeting on Wednesday, without much discussion or debate, the council voted in favor of a temporary control order on the advice of planning officers, meaning the council will no longer accept planning applications for this period.

Applications that will be considered completed before December 1, 2024 will remain in process, although service timing will not be guaranteed.

The board’s decision is due at the next regular board meeting on Nov. 26.

Councilors were told that the need for the temporary control order was a result of a lack of service capacity to facilitate future development, and there were already developments in the queue for approval that were outside the scope of existing service capacity.

Temporary control bylaws are a land use planning tool that places a temporary ban or restriction on the development of certain lands while a municipality studies or revises its development policies. All new third-party applications will be limited until a study of development costs and financial strategy for the required new infrastructure associated with growth is completed.

Although no new developments will be permitted, exceptions include any applications for partial lot inspections and applications for minor deviations. Also exempt are those development applications that have been submitted for review, deemed complete or placed on technical circulation, those that are approved and have a service allocation, or any third party applications that the board deems acceptable.

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

Councilor Phil St. Jean said the county’s affordable housing projects should also be considered a priority, noting in particular the Niles Street project in Wellington (formerly Duke Dome) and the Disraeli Street project were excluded, which the co-ordinator confirmed planning Angela Buonamici. already under benefits. The Deputy Clerk also noted a request for a tax exemption received regarding the zoning ordinance amendment application for 433 Main St., (Angeline’s Inn) Bloomfield.

St. Jean also noted that interim control bylaws rarely take just 12 months, and Councilwoman Kate McNaughton also raised concerns about whether it could be done within a year.

The D.C. (development fee) bylaw is expected to take four to six months to complete, and Chief Administrative Officer Marcia Wallace confirmed that the D.C. Ordinance is currently out for bid and is expected to close by the end of November. and a decision will be made by December.

A consultant should be hired to complete a baseline study of development costs that will cover the entire county.

“This will address the need to generate revenue from water and wastewater infrastructure in Wellington and Picton, where the proposed development is concentrated,” Buonamici said. “Bloomfield is included on this list because it currently receives water from the Picton system.”

Wallace said the county has laws regarding construction costs in terms of timing and public consultation, but indicated the intention is to have it completed by mid-2025 (assuming someone is willing to do a study) .

“As long as we get an offer within the price range, we will move forward and that will be done well before the one year is up, which will give us a path forward,” Wallace said.

The pause will allow the municipality to conduct a development cost study to assess and develop appropriate locations and timing for infrastructure and services, and develop a capital improvement plan to implement needed infrastructure projects.

“A significant number of residential units are at a much more advanced stage of planning approval and this exceeds the infrastructure maintenance capacity currently available,” Buonamici states in the report.

Wallace spoke about how important the move was, but also called it “somewhat symbolic.”

“The idea of ​​stopping development and not allowing applications to move forward is quite an extreme step, but we have so many departments that go through this process, and not everything in the process is always completed and created. »

She also spoke about the dire need for infrastructure.

“We really need to not muddy the waters by having new projects come in claiming they have a better idea than what’s already going through the system,” she said. “So we want to show the developer community that we’re going to play fair because we’re going to have to make some tough decisions in the coming years.”

“There are approximately 8,000 units of proposed development projects that would require a regional water treatment plant or would not be able to proceed because the existing capacity of both the Wellington and Picton water supply plans is insufficient.”

It is estimated that 4,200 units will be built in Picton and Wellington by 2032, and a total of 8,700 units by 2043.

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

The report states that approximately 2,200 single-family residential units remain at the Picton water treatment plant (approximately 5,400 units are in the process of planning approval).

There are approximately 335 single-family residential units remaining at the Wellington Water Treatment Plant (2650 units are in the process of planning approval).

Buonamichi says a new wastewater treatment plant is “essential.” Without it, the approximately 2800 units of the proposed development cannot be delivered as there is currently no spare capacity at the existing Wellington wastewater treatment plant,” she said.

Approved units with a high likelihood of construction soon are estimated at 1,000 units by 2032 and a total of 2,800 units by 2043.

The existing Wellington water and wastewater treatment plant does not have excess capacity to meet the growth and unit requirements expected by 2032. While the Wellington water treatment plant has 335 units of capacity remaining, the Wellington wastewater treatment plant has no capacity left, she notes.

As for the Picton wastewater treatment plant, there are approximately 340 single-family residential units remaining.

“The developments that are in the approval stage, but do not have placement, are about 6,500 units. The temporary control by-law is therefore appropriate to establish development controls to enable the necessary infrastructure upgrades to be carried out.”

Wallace said there is a significant infrastructure need for the community to continue to grow.

“There are a number of projects that have come before the planning committee that have received draft subdivision or zoning plan approval, and if they were all ready to build tomorrow, they wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the services because there wouldn’t be enough for everyone.”

“This is pretty serious, so it should also send a message to everyone that we understand how important service and funding are in terms of achieving the end goal of housing and affordable housing in our community.”