Land talks officially finished
By Chris Simon

It's official, there will be no further land negotiations between Barrie and Innisfil anytime soon.

Town council unanimously passed a resolution to formally cease further negotiations between representatives from the municipality and City of Barrie during a meeting last week. The resolution will also require the town's planning and development department to investigate other ways to meet the servicing needs of the Innisfil Heights area.

Innisfil entered into negotiations with Barrie over 18 months ago, with plans to swap development and Highway 400 servicing lands on an equal basis.

However, Innisfil representatives walked away form the bargaining table earlier this year, after a proposal from provincial facilitator Alan Wells' asked for the town to give up three times the amount of development land to Barrie as they would receive for servicing in the 400 corridor.

"It's an opportunity for this council to take another step forward in trying to create the opportunities we've outline in our business plan," said mayor Brian Jackson. "We've had difficulties, and by ceasing these discussions and participating fully in the county growth process, hopefully we can realize some benefits to our population for employment opportunities."

As part of the town's resolution, staff will also ask the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal to complete the future population allocation that is contained in the province's growth plan. Over the next 25 years, the population of Simcoe County is expected to grow by several hundred thousand people.

Barrie's population is expected to rise from 133,500 to 175,000, while the number of Innisfil residents will increase also increase significantly.

However, the province has also left an unallocated population of about 77,000 for the South Simcoe area. Innisfil now wants that population to be distributed based on current geographical boundaries, through Simcoe County's growth management process. That process is expected to be complete by June.

"The county (will) be respectfully requested to provide Innisfil with a fair share of stranded population anticipated for the Barrie area in the (provincial) growth plan," said councillor Paul Wardlaw.

Jackson said Wells' proposal would have failed to recognize future development of the 400 corridor, thus compromising the town's ability to expand Innisfil Heights and compete with other local municipalities. However, the town's resolution also addresses Innisfil Heights. Staff will be asking the county to include the 400 corridor expansion in its growth plan.

"This allows us to move forward," said Jackson.