Oak Park North clears hurdle

10/02/2004

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

Brantford is opening up a new era in industrial development with council's approval in principle of a 450-acre industrial park completely generated by a private developer in the northwest comer of the city. Council, in a planning meeting Monday, overwhelmingly endorsed two official plan amendments and a rezoning application that set the stage for the creation of Oak Park North - two parcels of land on the west and east side of Oak Park Road, north of Highway 403.

It lies between the municipally developed Northwest Business Park, which is almost out of land, and an industrial area on the Brant County side. Together, the three sections will create a large industrial area spanning both municipalities.

The park will be, built by King and Benton Development Corp., a rising industrial developer in the area, and contains a range of yet unnamed prestige industrial and warehousing concerns.

The developer must meet 26 conditions, mainly having to do with reports and regulatory hurdles that must be met concerning the area's sensitive ecology, marked by three aquifers and a perched fen, a fragile wetland left by a receding glacier in me last ice age.

If given final approval by council in two weeks, as expected, the way will be cleared for the city to run, under the 403, an oversized pipe bringing water to the area and sewage service.

"I think the call the municipality has sent out to the private sector to join in developing the area has been answered," King and Benton president Steve Charest said outside the council chamber.

"It's exciting what's about to happen. We've been working on this for the past couple of years, and we're ready to hit the ground running."

CONDITIONS

In separate voting on each portion of the development area, council unanimously supported the west side containing 120 acres. Only Coun. Marguerite Cescni-Smith declined to support "at this time" the east side containing 308 acres, until some reports and conditions; regarding storm water drainage and groundwater impact have been answered.

They are among the lengthy list of conditions attached to the approval and were raised by the environmental watchdog Northwest Gateway Committee.

But Ceschi-Smith, the committee's chairwoman, said she wanted to wait for the reports before agreeing to development on the east side.

That parcel of land is also beside a patch already severed for a proposed ethanol plant to be built by Integrated Grain Processors Co-operative, run mainly by Brant County grain producers, which has received approval to tap an aquifer for the large amount of water such plants require.

Mayor Mike Hancock and Coun. John Starkey also expressed similar reservations, but both eventually supported moving ahead.

Wayne Mahon, director of current planning, acknowledged "there are a lot of issues that still have to be addressed," but said he was confident the city is adequately protected.

Most councillors regard the new industrial park as a godsend to the city's industrial future because it is rapidly running out of serviceable land. It also heralds a major change in a decades-old development strategy in which the city bought land, installed services and sold it at lower prices to lure industry.

Now the city will be a facilitator in a process largely driven by private enterprise, which will take all the risk.

"It's a new way of doing business for us," said Coun. John Sless. "We've always developed our own industrial parks."

He also thought the long list of conditions sufficiently protects the community's water and other environmental concerns.

"We have to start learning how to make this kind of thing work instead of looking for ways of holding it back."