In the business world, location means everything and Puslinch is looking for more flexibility in order to provide lands for commercial and industrial development.
While some sections of Puslinch don’t have a lot of leeway to provide land for commercial and industrial use, Wellington County as a whole is facing a surplus.
And it is that surplus the province is looking at when determining whether or not to allow more land to be developed.
On Sept. 3 Wellington County’s manager of policy planning Mark Paoli along with planning director Gary Cousins spoke to Puslinch councillors on the township’s inventory of commercial and industrial land available for development.
Cousins explained the way the provincial policies now work is that “you really can’t discuss Puslinch without discussing Wellington County.”
Currently there are over 1,500 acres of vacant employment land across Wellington County; however, a Watson & Associates study report indicated only 1,100 acres are needed he said.
“That means that on paper there is a surplus of about 400 acres,” Cousins said.
“Years ago, that would be cause for celebration because quite frankly we spent a lot of time in the past looking to create places that made sense for employment where people would like to relocate and places to protect for the long term.”
But the province has changed its policy framework over the past few years and has decided that municipalities should be budgeting the use of its lands more carefully – both for residential and employment purposes.
“It has created problems for us, because those policies mean employment lands need to be looked at from a county-wide perspective – not on individual municipalities within the county.”
Therefore if one area has a shortage while another has a surplus, it cannot be remedied easily, Cousins said.
While he refrained from saying there is a shortage within Puslinch, he agreed there may be more interest in businesses wanting to relocate here rather than other parts of the county.
The report noted examples of large designated employment areas from across the County: North Fergus (about 130 acres), Mount Forest (about 200 acres), Guelph/Eramosa, (about 200 acres) and Drayton (about 90 acres).
Paoli noted that Puslinch has four areas that have the ability to accommodate industrial and commercial employment growth, at varying degrees and time frames.
He noted that most of the Brock Road and McLean Road area areas are designated Rural Industrial and have industrial commercial zoning.
He estimated there is only 38 acres of vacant developable area and that 90 per cent of the 520 acres has been developed, and is anticipated to be completely developed within the next five years.
Paoli said another area designated Rural Industrial is the Maltby Road/Hanlon Expressway area (Highway 6).
He said future planned improvements to the Hanlon Expressway include an interchange in this area which will have a major influence on the extent and layout of how that land is developed.
Potential development land exists on both sides of the Hanlon Expressway and accounts for a total of over 120 acres.
He noted the overall Economic Development Area for Puslinch includes both the Brock Road/McLean Road industrial area as well a number of secondary agricultural lands.
Much of that area is currently in use by active gravel pits and related processing uses, and includes the Nestle water bottling facility.
He said the local policy for those lands allows for industrial, commercial, institutional, recreation or natural areas as after-uses when the extractive or aggregate-related activities have ceased, subject to a secondary concept plan prepared by the proponents.
Paoli said another area in Puslinch, not normally thought of as employment lands, are areas throughout the township designated as secondary agricultural areas which allows small-scale industrial, commercial and institutional uses.
He explained secondary agricultural areas are the majority of the rural land in the Township and is expected to continue to make modest contributions to employment growth.
Paoli said that although the surplus of designated employment lands in the County poses an obstacle to designating additional employment land, Puslinch Township does have four existing areas that can accommodate employment growth, at varying extents in the future.
Councillor Ken Roth said that even though there are 400 acres of surplus designated industrial land in Wellington, “is it not up to Wellington County to assist to develop lands where they are needed for the benefit of the whole county?”
Roth added “If we run out of land (to develop) with our location here, I don’t think you are going to get places like Maple Leaf or Mammoet to go to Mount Forest.”
He agreed northern Wellington needs development, but with Puslinch’s proximity to major market and location along the 401 highway “it benefits the entire county if you let people develop land where they want to locate.”
Cousins pointed out that communities across Wellington County have worked very hard to develop and provide industrial lands even though it may be many years before they are developed.
He noted that the land developed by Maple Leaf Foods was actually designated for development by Puslinch roughly 20 to 25 years ago.
He said municipalities view these lands as a community resource and will want to protect them for the future.
Cousins said the difficulty for places such as Puslinch which are located on the 401 is a place where business wants to locate. “And I think that is what is missing from the provincial policies.”
Cousins suggested that rather than create newly designated land in Puslinch, there is an opportunity to move previously designated areas forward for development in the planning process.
He said a quick look of the undeveloped land in Puslinch along the Hanlon corridor and the 401 corridor show they were set aside purposefully by council many years ago.
“The question is how to get those lands ready for development,” Cousins said.
Roth contended that even if every acre of currently designated land in Puslinch was used up, development would first go to Guelph.
“So if you look at the whole picture for the benefit of the whole county, you have to provide land where it is needed – and wanted.”
Cousins clarified “I don’t want you to think the north end of the county is unattractive. Some of the northern communities have been attracting auto parts industries and they have opportunities they want to pursue.”
Councillor Wayne Stokley said the presentation offered a larger perspective.
He said perhaps policies need to be fine tuned to look at all the areas of the township, not just those governed by specific timelines – to allow more flexibility for businesses wanting to come in.
“It would probably help our township in the long term.”
Council Susan Fielding said “there is no doubt there is a need for land to expand industrial lands in Puslinch. If we are not going to get the blessing of the province then where do we stand?”
Cousins stated the issue of designating new commercial and industrial lands will continue to be a challenge in the future.
Mayor Dennis Lever asked about development on the south side of the 401.
He said Puslinch is located along the major transportation corridor of the province.
“The more value we can get from that, the better it is for the county.”
He added, “I’m certain this is not a unique problem for Wellington County where other counties have a north-south orientation and the 401 intersects through the area.”
Cousins said it may take time for the province to realize it can make better use of the 401 corridor.
