Guelph-Eramosa council is in support of freeing up lands along Wellington Road 124 between Guelph and Cambridge.
On Oct. 3 council voted unanimously to support a Wellington County Official Plan amendment to remove the “proposed major roadway” designation on lands set aside in the southwest corner of the township for a potential provincial highway.
“The designation spans several properties … and there’s several underlying land use designations from agriculture to core greenlands to the rural employment area,” explained township planning consultant Mitchell Avis.
The designation was originally put in place to restrict development along the proposed corridor when the province approved a realignment of the former Highway 24 in 1997.
“Since then the province has transferred the former Highway 24 corridor to the lower municipalities including the Region of Waterloo, the County of Wellington and the Region of Peel,” Avis said, adding the province will not provide any further financial assistance.
Avis said it’s not appropriate to continue to limit development along the corridor.
“What we’re trying to do today is absolutely remove something in the room that isn’t going to be built,” Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White said.
“We have a need for industrial land in this township; it’s very limited what we have.”
He added a comprehensive plan would need to be approved before any work could move forward, but the freeze on the land must be removed before developers will come forward.
“Without speaking for the owners of any of the properties, at this point in time the owner who has the largest piece of that land truly has no idea whether anyone around has any appetite to do anything on it,” councillor David Wolk said.
“It’s a very early point in this whole process.”
Local residents were concerned that removing the holding provisions on the lands could lead to more congestion on Wellington Road 124.
“The proposed major roadway designation, the lands all within that are all privately held so whether or not the designation is there, the county or any road authority that would wish to put a road in there would have to acquire those lands, either purchasing to acquire them or through expropriation,” Avis said.
“As part of this any developer would have to look at the main issues in this area such as the traffic and the access.”
Nancy Shoemaker was at the meeting representing an owner of lands affected by the official plan amendment and said the owner supports the removal of the holding provisions.
“We do have a concern with the language in terms of what the expectation will be moving forward,” she said.
“We understand there’s a need for a comprehensive concept plan for the area, the need for a subdivision plan for the area and the need to address traffic, but we’re also very concerned that (Wellington Road) (1)24 does have significant traffic concerns right now … and it seems to me that the county is relinquishing responsibility and placing it back on these owners and the expectation is that these owners will be the ones who are going to solve the problem for 124.”
She said she doubted any development would happen if this was the case.
Wellington County manager of policy planning Mark Paoli explained the traffic isn’t going to be improved by keeping the road designation on the map.
“I’m not entirely sure it’s fair to say that the county or the township are expecting the land owners to fix the traffic problem,” he said. “This proposal is about removing a line on the map for a road that there’s no reasonable expectation that it would be built.”
White said the highway will never be built but said that the possibility of the highway has hindered improvement plans for Wellington Road 124.
“Part of the idea of getting rid of the highway is to get rid of the ghost to force the county to look at 124,” he said, adding there are problems that need to be addressed today.
However, Julia Forward asked why it was necessary to remove the roadway designation now, when there are no plans yet to develop the industrial area.
“The reality is the area cannot sustain more industrial development right now,” she said. “The road does not handle it and what you’re proposing is to increase industry in a place that already can’t support industry.
“So until you can solve the road problem I suggest not removing an area that’s designed for, wait for it, a road.”
Paoli explained the county engineer has concepts in the works to improve the existing road and make it work better.
“He hopes to have success in the budget deliberations to have an EA (environmental assessment) go forward next year, but that’s to be determined,” Paoli said, emphasizing the book is not being closed on improvements.
