PUSLINCH – Jim Estill wants to open the Estill Innovation Community in Puslinch – a $100-million project – and he’s hoping council will be open to a new kind of planning process to move the project along.
Estill, owner of Danby Appliances Canada, headquartered in Guelph, delegated to council Dec. 21 to explain his vision and how the project could be mutually beneficial.
He also hoped council would support his desire to use the new planning tool, the Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator (CIHA), to expedite the process.
Estill has partnered with Upper Canada Forest Group, which is currently headquartered in Mississauga.
Both companies intend to move their headquarters to the new innovation community and see it becoming a centre for other businesses to locate their head offices to as well.
Also located there will be shared boardrooms and common spaces, co-working space, training and meeting rooms, a gym, daycare, commercial kitchen and cafeteria.
Estill sees it as a place to partner with the University of Guelph, Innovation Guelph and others who are focused on agricultural innovations that help reduce climate change.
He described a place with warehouse and production space for startups, and outdoors, a community park with trails and gardens for employees and community partners to use.
“Communitech did this for tech startups,” he said. “It will be an ag tech and food tech hub that Guelph and Puslinch will become known for.
“It will tie Puslinch into the innovation corridor.”
It will also pay taxes to the township and that takes some of the burden off residential taxpayers.
Estill said he’s put an offer on a piece of property on the west side of the Hanlon Expressway in the area of the new Hanlon overpass (between Maltby Road and Wellington Road 34) that is to be constructed in the near future.
It’s a 61-acre triangular piece of property bounded by Highway 6, Sideroad 20 and Concession 4.
Six of those acres are zoned rural employment (industrial) and 55 are zoned secondary agriculture.
Danby Appliances wants to open the Estill Innovation Community in Puslinch. The triangular area outlined with red is the property where Danby owner Jim Estill hopes to locate the centre. Image from Puslinch council agenda package
It has easy access to Highway 401 and will bring 500 or 600 jobs to the area, he added.
Dave Astin, a planner with MHBC, said the project is in line with the provincial policy statement as well as the Wellington County and Township of Puslinch official plans in terms of growth.
“There is a need for employment land,” he said, adding proximity to the U of G and Highway 401 are the main reasons the property is so attractive, although there are a couple of other communities that would also be suitable if this proposal falls through.
Mayor James Seeley wanted to know why they want to go the CIHA route versus an official plan amendment.
“It’s mostly for the speed,” Estill said.
CIHA is new, part of the More Homes for Everyone Act that gives the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing the power to make orders to respond to municipal requests for expedited zoning outside of the Greenbelt.
According to the ministry website, “a CIHA order can be used to regulate the use of land and the location, use, height, size and spacing of buildings and structures to permit certain types of development.”
The minister can provide an exemption for some planning-related approvals, but it’s up to a municipality to initiate the request.
Councillor Jessica Goyda said she’s worried about truck traffic on Sideroad 20.
Although the property is ideal for an on- and off-ramp from the southbound Hanlon, there is no northbound access.
And while the new Hanlon interchange being constructed by the MTO would be nearby, Goyda worries trucks would have to travel on rural roads to get there.
Estill said there wouldn’t be a lot of trucks and certainly not heavy trucks. And the MTO would be involved as the Hanlon is a provincial highway.
Seeley said he hoped access to the property would be from Concession 4, which is built for truck traffic and not Siderod 20, which is not.
Councillor John Sepulis wanted a public information meeting before the township committed to anything.
CAO Glenn Schwendinger agreed.
“It might be good for the municipality and the proponent to have a public information meeting,” he said.
“Our role is to facilitate discussion and get a sense of what the community thinks. Then council will be in a better position to decide.”
In the end, council instructed staff to report back on the difference between the OPA and CIHA processes and to arrange a public meeting for early February.
