Thornton gets turn to host county development meeting
By Richard Blanchard

Photo by Richard Blanchard About 60 people attended a growth management planning meeting in Thornton last week.

The first round of public meetings on Simcoe county's ongoing growth plan saw about 60 residents turn up in Thornton last Thursday morning with plenty of questions on the direction of the study.

The second of four meetings for the general public, the Thornton meeting was the only one slated for South Simcoe.

Residents were told that the plan would be completed by June 2008, with a draft completed by next March for a further round of public review and consultation.

Ray Simpson of Hemson Consulting said that the critical issue to be met by the Growth Plan was to decided where the 100,000 additional housing units which are expected to be need to meet Simcoe County's project population of 667,000 in 2031 will go.

"There are enough proposals to accommodate the expected growth but there is a shortage of supply in the southern part of the county," he said. Another major issue is the lack of land for new residential growth in Barrie.

The plan will also deal with the province's demands for increased density in new developments and the need for more industrial designated land.

Questions from the public ranged from the role of a revised governance structure in the plan to the need to better handle traffic.

"There is an ongoing governance committee at the county. Governance will not be addressed directly in this plan," said county warden Tony Guergis.

Darlene Copper of Cookstown asked about the study's plans to deal with increasing traffic flows in south Simcoe.

Corporate Services manager Rick Newlove said the the biggest problem with traffic was going from the provincial roads like Highway 400.

"We are developing a county master transportation plan."

Ray Simpson told residents that the growth plan was required for many reasons including the need to demonstrate need for provincial funds to provide necessary infrastructure.

"Schools, hospitals and all other institutions which require direct funds from the province will be helped with study which will lay out future growth," he said.

Additional public meetings are continuing this week in Barrie and Orillia as well as forums for developers and organized interest groups at Simcoe county council chambers in Midhurst.

Information on the growth plan is available at http://growth.simcoe.ca.