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Shelburne Council discusses huge Fieldgate development


Written By PETER RICHARDSON

Council opened Monday evening with a moment of silence for the victims and all those involved in the horrific van rampage in Toronto, that afternoon.

Following this, the first pu blic meeting, concerning the massive development project adjacent to the Beer Store Plaza was opened with a report by Town Planner Steve Wever. This development, proposed by Fieldgate Homes, is officially designated as being 900 Main Street East, which is located on the lands surrounding the Wrigglesworth Plaza, where the Beer Store and Tim Horton's are presently located and opposite The No Frills Store.

The development, to be known as “Fieldgate”, will consist of 320 residential units as well as blocks of commercial property, a storm management pond, a park, open space, a natural heritage system and a sanitary pumping station.The residences will consist of a mix of single detached, semi-detached, street townhouse and condominium townhome units, in addition to the commercial blocks.

The development will facilitate addressing growth policies from the provincial and county governments as well as meeting the expectations of the Town's official plan. The development will have access and egress from both Hwy. 10/89 and County Road 124. In the future, it is proposed that Industrial Road, be realigned to link up with the street exiting Fieldgate onto Cty. Rd. 124.

At this time, no complaints have been put forward by any of the applicable authorities, regarding this development. These include th affected school boards, Canada Post, Enbridge Gas, Town Fire and Police and the MTO. Dufferin County and The NVCA have not responded, as yet. A number of Zoning By-law Amendments will be necessary in order to complete the development as planned.

During the meeting, a number of questions and concerns were raised both by Council and members of the public. The most consistent of these, being the provision of adequate sidewalks or pathways, for pedestrian traffic in and out of Fieldgate. In particular, were the concerns about children walking to and from school. Councillor Dan Samples also raised the point that the proposed parkland, is roughly half the normal size for a park in Shelburne.
After thanking the developers for their efforts to date, Mayor Ken Bennington voiced several concerns he had with the proposed plan. The issue of pedestrian access was one of these and in particular the school children having to cross six lanes of traffic on Hwy.10/89 in order to get to and from school.

He also noted that none of the proposed streets were suited to provide through access to any future developments on the surrounding lands, should they occur.

Steve Wever replied that the surrounding lands were either protected land, as in the north, or belonged to the Township of Melancthon and not The Town of Shelburne, thus precluding future developmental expansion. The Mayor also noted, that the location of the proposed Storm Water Management Pond, or SWM, was immediately adjacent to Hwy. 10/89 and would be the very first thing seen as you approached the town and Fieldgate. Considering that these SWM's are often less than attractive, he hoped that the developers would be looking at relocating or extensively landscaping this one.

Councillor Walter Benotto mentioned that in winter, the plowing of the proposed walkways in and around Fieldgate, would potentially render their access to the natural heritage areas impassable, due to piled up snow and that an area for this snow to be piled would be an asset.
Councillor Steve Anderson expressed concerns about street lighting along Cty. Rd. 124, for pedestrian safety and Councillor Mills asked about a probable start date, seeing as how a large quantity of fill had to be brought in and graded first. The developer noted that they were anxious to start construction as soon as possible and would hope to be building by summers end.

Councillor Randy Chambers asked if any commercial interest had been expressed as yet, since he did not want to see all the residential being completed prior to any commercial development commencing. The answer was that both would be started simultaneously and that there has been strong commercial interest expressed to date.

On the public side, Cathy Martino, who owns lands to the East of the development, asked if there was to be a barrier between Fieldgate and her property, to which Mr. Wever stated that there would be a fence surrounding that part of the development. Resident Ann Crowder had concerns about the lack of bungalows or mid -rise condominiums inn the proposed plan. She said that empty nesters and retirees in Shelburne had no access to such, at present and that there was both a need and a demand for this in the town.

In all, the meeting, though lengthy, was very productive and all parties went away with lots to dwell upon and consider, before the final plan is submitted for approval.

Elsewhere in Council's agenda, they heard from the Ontario Clean Water Agency, or OCWA, who manage and run the Town's water and sewage facilities and from Steve Burnette, the Town Engineer, concerning the treatment facility itself.

OCWA's report showed that the facilities in question were running well and functioning as expected. They did however take the time to elaborate on the recent announcement regarding Sodium Levels in the Town's water. They pointed out that although one well has a high sodium content, that this is no reason for concern and is in fact a naturally occurring phenomenon.

Since all of the town's wells are mixed in the water tower before being pumped out to the residents, this well's levels are largely mediated by the other well water. At 17.93 milligrams per litre, the Town water is well below the Provincial requirement. to place things in perspective, if a person were to eat a lean deli turkey meat sandwich, on a single piece of multi grain bread with some celery and a glass of milk, they would consume several times the recommended daily limit of sodium. In another example, a single serving of carrots would equal drinking an entire litre of water from the high sodium well. As one can see, Shelburne's water is more than potable and certainly without risk.

In his report concerning our WPCP, Water Pollution Control Plant, Engineer Steve Burnett outlined for Council the present status of the plant and a 20 year projection of what can be expected. Although we presently are operating well within the capacity for the existing plant, with the projected growth in town, there will come a time when changes and upgrades will become necessary. Steve outlined a number of possible options, ranging fro simple upgrades to a whole new facility and when, due to capacity and growth any of them might be required. In general, nothing is expected to be required before the year 2022 and the most dramatic of the possibilities would occur in 2041. For now at least, Council was assured that everything is running well and everything is being done to maintain that .

Finally, Council passed a motion commending our local Home Hardware and owners Bill and Carole Gillam on winning a Proud of My Home Hardware Building Centre award, for being the best Home Hardware Store in Canada, in the under 15,000 square feet category!
Post date: 2018-04-26 15:09:04
Post date GMT: 2018-04-26 19:09:04
Post modified date: 2018-04-26 15:09:04
Post modified date GMT: 2018-04-26 19:09:04
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