| When will Council decide about expanding the boundary of Orillia? |
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It is anticipated that Council will be presented with the final growth options and draft Settlement Area Boundary Expansion lands for consideration within 2024.
The City of Orillia is currently completing Phase 2 of the Technical Land Evaluation to identify the best lands from a planning perspective for a potential future boundary expansion. Phase 2 includes a presentation of all the detailed technical results of finding the best lands that will have the least impact on water resources, infrastructure capacity, natural heritage features, impact on agricultural land, and beyond, and consultation with stakeholders. The input received from the public will be taken into consideration to inform a report that is anticipated to be presented for Council’s consideration by the first quarter of 2024.
Phase 3 will use the findings from the technical analysis to identify a final growth option and draft Settlement Area Boundary Expansion lands for consideration by Council. Supporting reports and justification will be prepared during Phase 3, which will be used to inform a recommended boundary expansion for consideration and approval by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing through an annexation process. Whatever the size and location of expansion lands approved by the Province, these lands will be incorporated into the City’s Official Plan by way of an Official Plan Amendment.
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| When will we know what lands Orillia needs? |
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As part of the public consultation underway currently, a preliminary map is being presented that identifies the maximum amount of land size Orillia will need to grow over the next 30 years, which is identified as 356.1 ha of land. In the future, Council will need to make a decision on how much additional land they will need to accommodate Orillia’s growth over the next 30 years.
Based on the process so far, the amount of lands required will not be more than 365.1 ha, but the exact amount won’t be known until Phase 3 of the Technical Land Evaluation process is completed. It is anticipated that Council will be presented with the final growth options and draft Settlement Area Boundary Expansion lands for its consideration within 2024.
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| What is the Refined Focus Study Area (FSA)? |
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The initial study area included a broad land area adjacent to Orillia within the Townships of Severn, Oro-Medonte, and Ramara.
Following information gathered through public and stakeholder consultation held in Spring 2022 (part of Phase 1), WSP further reduced the focus area to a refined study area in order to complete their detailed Technical Land Evaluation:
Refined Focus Study Area Map
In refining the FSA, the Township of Ramara and the lands south of the City of Orillia in the Township of Oro-Medonte along Lake Simcoe were removed from the FSA, recognizing the physical and environmental constraints of accommodating future urban growth in these locations.
Specifically, within the Township of Ramara, community connectivity across the narrows would present challenges related to infrastructure, servicing, and transportation. Further, any lands included as part of the SABE in Ramara would impact future development in the Township’s principal community area in the Village of Atherley-Uptergrove.
The Refined FSA consists of two areas, one located within the Township of Severn to the north and the other within the Township of Oro-Medonte to the west. For reference purposes, the lands located in Severn are described in the technical reports as the North FSA, and the lands located within Oro-Medonte are described as the West FSA. These two areas are being studied jointly as a single FSA to determine the most appropriate location(s) for growth.
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| To what extent have you undertaken consultation with the Indigenous Communities for this proposed boundary expansion? |
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As part of our consultation process on the proposed boundary expansion, the City of Orillia has sent communication to the William Treaties First Nations (namely, Chippewas of Rama First Nation, Curve Lake First Nation, Alderville First Nation, Chippewas of Beausoleil First Nation, Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, Hiawatha First Nation, Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation), the Huron-Wendat Nation and Metis Nation of Ontario.
From the responses received after sending out two letters from the Mayor of the City of Orillia (on September 27, 2021 and November 16, 2021), the City has been focussing on consultation meetings with the Chief and Council of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation as they are our closest neighbour. We have met with Rama First Nation on January 20, 2022 and May 8, 2023 to provide them with information about the City’s proposed boundary expansion.
Early and frequent consultation with Indigenous Communities is expected when planning for future growth, as communicated to the City by the Province of Ontario. Further, the Chippewas of Rama First Nation has a constitutional right to consultation within their traditional and treaty territories. Since the proposed expansion lands are on lands located within the Williams Treaties, it is imperative that the City of Orillia consult extensively with Indigenous Communities, specifically the Williams Treaties First Nations and our neighbors, the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, on this very sensitive planning matter. The City of Orillia values all of the input received from everyone including the Indigenous Communities with traditional ties to the Orillia area.
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| What is the difference between community area and employment area? What are the needs of each? |
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“Community area” is land where housing, recreation, schools, institutional uses (i.e. hospitals), and commercial uses will be located.
“Employment area” is land focused exclusively on employment activity. Generally, business parks and industrial areas.
Over the next 30 years, the City will need to accommodate 7,330 new housing units and 1,560 new jobs. We know that 755 of those new jobs can be accommodated on available employment lands located within the City’s current municipal boundary. However, the other 805 new jobs would need to be accommodated on boundary expansion lands, requiring 49.2ha of additional land.
The 30-year land need for housing ranges from needing an additional 81.9 ha to not requiring any new land for housing, depending on how much intensification/densification Council wishes to direct to the lands within the City’s existing municipal boundary.
On the community area lands, the City requires 35.3 ha of additional land for recreation purposes and 28.6 ha of additional land for schools. These land needs cannot be accommodated within the current municipal boundaries and would need to be located on expansion lands.
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| In the ranges of intensification, what do the different built forms look like? |
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At a 50% intensification rate, a range of housing can be built, which is the type of development we currently see happening in Orillia: single-family homes, semi-detached homes, townhouses and apartments.
At a 55% intensification rate, housing would be limited to townhouses and apartments only.
At a 60% intensification rate, housing would be limited to low, medium and high-rise apartments only.
At 65% and 69% intensification rates, housing would be limited to only medium- and high-rise apartments.
At a 65% intensification rate, the following is an example of the built form:
At a 69% intensification rate, the following is example of built form:
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| Where would new structures be built within the existing boundary? |
| To achieve the intensification rate that Council establishes, new housing would be focused in the City’s downtown and intensification areas. The City will continue to have stable neighbourhoods, which limit the degree of change and restrict the heights of new housing occurring in the neighbourhood. With the writing of the new Official Plan, the City will need to identify new intensification areas, which will be the focus of new growth and development. |
| How are lands protected in this process? |
| The City will not allow development to occur on land that has natural heritage features and areas that are evaluated to be ecologically significant. The proposed lands required for potential future growth also identify areas of land that cannot be developed on because of the ecological significance. |
| If a boundary expansion takes place, where will Orillia expand to? |
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At a minimum, Orillia requires an additional 113 ha of expansion land to accommodate its future employment, recreation and school growth needs. Options being reviewed currently are potential expansions into the Township of Oro-Medonte and/or the Township of Severn.
The City of Orillia is not looking at future expansion lands within the Township of Ramara because there are small, developed parcels of land on the east side of Atherley Narrows Bridge, which does not help the City achieve its objective of incorporating large tracts of vacant, undeveloped land within the City’s settlement area boundary to accommodate future growth. Furthermore, the extension of municipal services across the Atherley Narrows Bridge is impractical and not recommended.
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| How will the expansion/intensification range be determined? |
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Council will need to make a decision on how much intensification/densification it wants to see occur in Orillia over the next 30 years, which will impact the size of a potential future boundary expansion. At a minimum, Orillia requires an additional 113 ha of expansion land to accommodate its future employment, recreation and school growth needs. Options being reviewed currently are potential expansions into the Township of Oro-Medonte and/or the Township of Severn.
The City of Orillia is not looking at future expansion lands within the Township of Ramara because there are small, developed parcels of land on the east side of Atherley Narrows Bridge which does not help the City achieve its objective of incorporating large tracts of vacant, undeveloped land within the City’s settlement area boundary to accommodate future growth. Furthermore, the extension of municipal services across the Atherley Narrows Bridge is impractical and not recommended.
Council will not be asked to make a decision on the intensification/densification rate until after the Province adopts the new Provincial Policy Statement, which is anticipated to occur in the fall of 2023.
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| Why can’t this all be achieved through intensification only? |
| New housing can be achieved solely through intensification by allowing only medium and high-rise apartments to be built. However, the provision of employment, recreation and schools cannot be provided through intensification alone as they require more undeveloped land than is currently available. |
| What is included in the annexation process? |
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The process taking place with identifying lands for a future potential boundary expansion is a planning process to identify how much lands the City needs to accommodate population and employment growth over the next 30 years and to identify the best lands from a planning perspective where this future growth should be accommodated. Once the best lands for a potential future boundary expansion have been determined by Council, the City will embark on the annexation process that is regulated by the Municipal Act. There are legislative requirements that must be met when preparing an annexation proposal for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) to consider approving.
Agreements must be negotiated with the affected municipalities; joint public meetings must be held with the affected municipalities; and majority support must be obtained from County of Simcoe Council, Orillia City Council, and Township Council. Once that work has been done, a proposal is submitted to MMAH for review and approval. Failing reaching agreement with the affected municipalities, then the Province can legislate a mandatory annexation.
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| What are the next steps? |
| The City will take all the feedback received during the June 20 Open House, and written comments provided by July 17, as well as the findings from the various aspects of the project to inform a report to Council requesting its endorsement of an intensification/densification rate and size of a potential future boundary expansion. The timing of this report is currently unknown, as this will not take place until after the new Provincial Policy Statement has been adopted by the Province, which is anticipated to occur in fall 2023. |
| How have residents of the affected lands been informed of this potential expansion? |
| At this point, the process is still in the preliminary planning stages. Information has been communicated to surrounding Townships, online and through public open houses. Those interested in learning more about the City’s planning process seeking additional lands for population and employment growth over the next 30 years are invited to attend the virtual public open house on June 20. Interested residents can also visit orillia.ca/MCR and sign up to receive email updates. As the project advances, more consultation will be held. |
| If my lands become part of the City of Orillia will my taxes go up? Will I be required to connect to Orillia’s municipal sewer and water system? |
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This question is premature and cannot be answered at this time, because the City is currently undertaking a planning process to identify the best lands for a future boundary expansion to accommodate our population and employment growth over the next 30 years. This is a planning process at this point; not an annexation process.
If the City embarks on an annexation process, negotiations would be held with the affected municipalities and implications to affected residents with respect to taxes and services would be addressed at that time.
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| What will the potential financial impacts be for Township residents resulting from the City of Orillia’s possible boundary expansion? Is it possible to determine timing associated with potential financial impacts? |
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This is unknown at this time. The City is currently undertaking a planning process, not an annexation process, to identify the best lands from a planning perspective for a potential future boundary expansion.
Once Council makes a decision on the size and location of a potential future boundary expansion, the City would embark on an annexation process, which would include negotiations with the affected municipalities to determine the financial impacts of annexation on the affected municipalities.
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| What is included in the Technical Land Evaluation process? |
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The Technical Land Evaluation is a three-phase process. The City of Orillia engaged a consultant, WSP, to complete the three phases.
Phase One established the background information needed to inform the technical analysis and identified a study area including lands abutting the City’s boundaries as candidate areas for possible boundary expansion.
Phase Two involves preparing the Technical Land Evaluation reports to further assess the identified growth scenarios. The report will address the technical feasibility requirements outlined in the Growth Plan.
Phase Three will use the findings from the technical analysis to identify a final growth option based on a Planning Justification Report and draft Settlement Area Boundary Expansion lands for Council’s consideration.
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| What is included in the updated Land Needs Assessment/Intensification and Greenfield Density Review process? |
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As part of the Land Needs Assessment update, the City project team will work with its consultant, Hemson Consulting Ltd., to consider higher minimum intensification and greenfield density targets for residential development and their implications, including what minimum building heights would be required, what minimum built form would be required, what neighbourhoods would be affected, and how the additional land would be impacted.
City staff is currently working with Hemson to review a range of intensification and density targets for residential development, as well as evaluating the updated land needs for employment (i.e. manufacturing, offices, etc.), recreation (i.e. baseball diamonds, etc.), education (i.e. future school sites), and health (i.e. hospital). These land needs will factor into the updated Land Needs Assessment, which will be completed by Hemson once Council makes a decision on which intensification and density target for residential development that they wish to pursue.
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| I am an Orillia resident – how does this affect me? |
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Council will need to make a decision on the amount of intensification/densification that it wants Orillia to incur over the next 30 years to accommodate 7,330 new housing units. Depending on the minimum intensification/densification targets established by Council, the additional need for land beyond the City’s current municipal boundaries could range from 82ha down to 0ha depending on the density, scale and built form of new housing Council wants built in the Orillia.
At the very minimum, the City needs to expand its boundaries to accommodate:
- 805 new jobs on 49.2 ha of new employment land
- New recreation facilities on 35.3 ha of additional land
- New schools on 28.6 ha of additional land
To learn more about the process and to sign up for updates, please visit the Stay Informed webpage.
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| I am a resident of a surrounding township – how does this affect me? |
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At this time, no decisions are being made by Council with respect to the size and location of the future boundary expansion lands. At this time, we are gathering input from the public to garner their thoughts on the amount of intensification/densification the City should incur over the next 30 years and to provide comment on the best lands identified for a future boundary expansion.
After the Province adopts the new Provincial Policy Statement, then a report will be prepared for Council to endorse an intensification/densification target and the size of future boundary expansion.
As the City continues its planning process to identify the size and location of the best lands from a planning perspective for a boundary expansion, the City is sharing information with the surrounding townships within the focused study area (the Townships of Severn and Oro-Medonte). WSP, the City’s consultant, intends to significantly refine the lands being studied further during this phase of their work to identify the best lands from a planning perspective for a potential future boundary expansion. At the most the future boundary expansion will require 365.ha of additional land. However, the exact amount and location of land required for a potential boundary expansion will be a Council decision to be made at some point in the future.
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| What are my appeal rights associated with this planning process? |
| There are no formal appeal rights permitted under the Municipal Act on the Planning Act as part of the planning process associated with a settlement boundary expansion to bring the City of Orillia's Official Plan into conformity with the Provincial Growth Plan. |
| How is this Technical Land Evaluation process for studying a future boundary expansion different from annexation? |
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The Technical Land Evaluation process for studying a future boundary expansion is a planning process to evaluate and determine the best lands to be included in the City's future municipal boundary from a planning perspective. There are many criteria set out in the Provincial Growth Plan that must be taken into consideration when considering an expansion to a settlement boundary: the lands must be able to be adequately serviced; prime agricultural areas should be avoided and the impact on the agricultural system should be minimized; water quality and quantity should be protected; the lands must be in compliance with all provincial plans and policies; and the lands should be contiguous and connected to the City's existing boundary.
The City has retained the consulting services of WSP to conduct this planning analysis and by summer of 2023 they will present a Planning Justification Report to the City recommending the best lands (based on the planning criteria previously identified) to be incorporated into the City through a potential future boundary expansion.
If Council chooses to pursue a future boundary expansion, then the City will need to embark on a negotiation process with the affected townships and the County of Simcoe to discuss the annexation process, which is regulated by the Ontario Municipal Act. Through this process it is very important to come up with a local agreement between the City and the affected townships/County. This future annexation process would include negotiations about taxes, compensation for loss of assessment, impact on existing roads and services and other impacts to the affected townships.
The Municipal Act requires that Public Meetings be held for all affected municipalities and that a majority of support be obtained from County Council, City of Orillia Council and township councils. If local agreement and majority support from the affected councils cannot be achieved, then the Province can legislate the annexation.
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