Industrial park could spark change

10/06/2004

City's economic development department could find role altered

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

City councillors are upbeat over Brantford's economic growth following council's blessing of a new 450-acre private industrial park planned for the northwest.

Speculation is rife among them that Steve Charest, president of King and Benton Development Corp., already has a number of companies lined up to locate in his Oak Park North site, located on both sides of Oak Park Road, north of Highway 403.

"From the way he's talking, I just know he has a few deals already in his pocket" Coun. John Sless said.

Charest is known to be bringing in interested investors from across Ontario and the United States, but has turned aside questions to be more specific.

All he says is, "We're ready to hit the ground running" as soon as the proposal is approved.

While some councillors speculate on the potential for Oak Park North to set off another flurry of companies coming to the city, they also say it carries huge implications for the way city hall handles economic development and relations with Brant County.

Council is expected to approve in the next two weeks applications from King and Benton to amend the city's official plan and the zoning bylaw to establish the new industrial zone.

The move will accomplish the following:

It will throw the development game into the court of private businessmen, who will suddenly have the bulk of serviceable land, since the Northwest Business Park is down to 40 unsold acres, and a proposed city-owned area on the eastern outskirts won't be ready for a few years yet.

"Thank you for filling the void we were going to have for industrial land," Coun. Richard Carpenter told Charest.

That means the traditional development model where the city acquired land for a park, serviced it, then had the economic development department market and sell it will switch to a role of promoter and facilitator.

Using a fishing metaphor, Charest said "instead of catching and releasing businesses, it will be catching them and bringing them into the boat."

Oak Park North will form a link between the municipally developed Northwest Business Park and another industrial area in Brant County, some of which is slotted to come into the city under a proposed, boundary adjustment agreement between the two municipalities that is awaiting provincial approval.

JOINT PLANNING NEEDED

That would create one large industrial zone spanning both municipalities, spurring the two to consider joint development planning.

"Joint official planning is badly needed, the way that area is developing," said Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith.

She sees it as a way of encouraging efficient land use, putting all on municipal water and sewer services, and ensuring environmental protection in a corridor along Powerline Road and Highway 2, which is marked with important aquifers and sensitive ecology.

The prospect of a rapid business infill of the area in the next few years could increase environmental scrutiny in the area. For instance, the watchdog group Northwest Gateway Committee has expressed concern that the proposed ethanol plan to be built by the Integrated Grain Processors Co-operative will tap into the aquifer system for its heavy water needs, rather than hook up to municipal water.

King and Benton secured a severance from the last council for the parcel of land where the ethanol plant is going in its park, and a rezoning to allow it to use groundwater and its own septic system instead of the usual municipal services.

At the time, the construction of a watermain to the area was considered several years away. But all of that has changed as the city prepares to extend the line across the 403 in the near future.