ACW Council debates new growth plan for the municipality
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
At its Dec. 17 meeting, Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh (ACW) Council received a comprehensive report on a number of issues that will inform the township’s Growth and Servicing Master Plan. Lisa Courtney of B.M. Ross and Associates walked council through the compendious presentation, which includes an extensive examination of every settlement area in the municipality, as well as all potential settlements, vacant lots and hazard zones. The factors that currently limit ACW’s potential future growth are also explored, as is the feasibility of expanding cross-border services with municipalities like Huron-Kinloss.
Courtney began by explaining how B.M. Ross conducted its broad review of ACW and identified its potential areas for growth and the limitations that stand in its way. “One of the components of this study was to look at the opportunities and constraints related specifically to ACW around residential growth and servicing. This involved, first, a review of your existing land uses, historic growth patterns, and then, the existing infrastructure and current policy environments,” she explained.
Areas like Port Albert, Saltford and The Bluffs are identified as active growth zones, and, in general, there is greater development pressure along the shore of Lake Huron than there is in the interior villages and hamlets. However, there is one central issue that affects potential growth across the entirety of the township. “One of the challenges faced by ACW when it comes to growth, specifically, is that there is a lack of full municipal services in the township, meaning both water and wastewater,” Courtney told council.
When it comes to existing infrastructure, there are six drinking water systems currently operated by ACW. Four of those systems include both supply and distribution: Benmiller, Century Heights, Dungannon and Huron Sands. The other two - Amberley Beach and South of Lucknow - are distribution-only systems, with water supplied by Huron-Kinloss. Additionally, Benmiller has a wastewater collection system that utilizes a privately-owned treatment system. “This means that the potential for significant residential and non-residential growth in ACW is fairly limited, with the exception of Benmiller,” Courtney explained. “They do have water and wastewater servicing there, but most of your other areas have what we call ‘partial servicing’ - so you have a water system, and then everybody’s got septic systems. Or they’re fully individual systems, so everybody’s got their own well and their own septic system.”
Courtney concluded that not having a centralized water or wastewater system is one of the greatest inhibitors to growth in ACW. “This absence of municipal services means that, typically, you’re going to see just single, detached units. You’re not going to get that range and variety of development, and your development density is going to be relatively low.”
The report also recommends that, in many of the hamlets and smaller settlements of ACW, individual wells are still the most effective way to go. The lots are still large enough to accommodate such wells, and implementing a municipal water system in areas like Auburn and St. Helens would come along with some prohibitive costs.
She also presented even more detailed data on the reserve capacity of each settlement in ACW that relies on any kind of municipal water or wastewater systems. “Reserve capacity” refers to the existing potential within a water or wastewater system that is available for future growth. It is calculated by subtracting the existing use and committed capacity of a system from its total capacity, based on the average daily use of a household in each settlement.
In Benmiller, the current water system can accommodate 16 additional residential units, while Century Heights has the reserve capacity for 103 additional units. Dungannon has the capacity to add 238 units, and Huron Sands can handle 207 more residences before the system would need to increase capacity. Councillor Jennifer Miltenberg wanted to know how B.M. Ross came by such specific information. “We’ve been asked more than once if we could do a metering system, and it doesn’t save anyone money, by the cost of it, so how did you get the numbers for average use per day?” she asked. “You’re getting that number from somewhere, right?” Courtney explained that they had gone to the company that manages ACW’s water testing, Veolia Water, to get data directly from their flow meters. “It’s an average over the whole system,” she said.
Both Benmiller and Century Heights were singled out for having much higher-than-average water usage than any other settlement in ACW. Courtney recommended that these two water systems should be monitored for any potential leaks that might explain the excess expenditure of water, but Deputy-Mayor Bill Vanstone pointed out that the unusually high numbers in both Benmiller and Century Heights may have to do with a greater concentration of luxuries that use a lot of water, like swimming pools and automatic lawn watering systems.
The report covers many options for potential servicing changes that could affect the future growth of each settlement in ACW. It recommends monitoring both developments and the availability of purchasable lots in the future, especially in high-growth areas like Saltford. In Port Albert, individual, private and communal well services should remain, as they are the preferred form of servicing named in the Port Albert Servicing Master Plan.
It also states that, for lots in the lakeshore area, where the existing development is already serviced by private wells, individual wells could be used to support development, but it should be limited to minor infilling and rounding-out. For subdivisions and larger developments, communal water servicing in conjunction with communal sewage servicing should be the preferred form of servicing. If a proposed development is freehold units, only municipal ownership of the communal services will be permitted.
In terms of non-residential growth, the report suggests potential rezoning in ACW. The township lacks appropriately-zoned vacant lands for commercial or industrial development, so it is advising that the township should consider investigating opportunities to rezone vacant lands within existing settlement areas. Of course, the lack of servicing may limit the types of future commercial and industrial development. The report recommends updating the servicing agreement with Huron-Kinloss for assured capacity for Amberley and South of Lucknow if future growth is desired in those areas.The South of Lucknow settlement area may also have potential for future non-residential development lands if municipal services from Huron-Kinloss can be utilized.
Overall, B.M. Ross has concluded that it is a logical and economical strategy to allow development within existing service and settlement areas, and that ACW should consider limiting future development to areas where communal servicing is feasible.