Simcoe County will need the province’s support to defend its proposed growth policy, as developers prepare to fight for projects that might no longer fit in the new Places to Grow era, says a former county warden, Bradford West Gwillimbury Deputy Mayor Dennis Roughley.

In reviewing the plan that spreads 227,000 more people and 100,000 jobs throughout the area, Roughley noted the plan aims to create communities where people can live, work and play, but that those communities aren’t perhaps what developers have previously envisioned.

“We will end up in Ontario Municipal Board hearings that will cost us all kinds of money to defend policies for our own good. We need the support of those who made the provincial policy decisions,” said Roughley.

County planning consultant Antony Lorius stressed developers will inevitably test Simcoe County’s and Ontario’s determination to fight sprawl. In presenting the final draft of the Simcoe Area Growth Plan to area politicians Wednesday, he said the plan needs provincial support, because it does not give everyone what they want.

“The province will have to be there to defend it,” said Lorius, noting the local plan does conform to the province’s Places to Grow (P2G) – in that it allocates provincially imposed population and job targets, as well as land-use policies restricting development to established settlement areas.

“Our job is to conform (to P2G) and in my opinion, it’s been done. The stakes are high,” he added.

“It means saying no.”

The county’s plan calls for employment growth to centre in the Highway 400 corridor through Innisfil and Bradford West Gwillimbury, while residential growth would occur in not only Innisfil and BWG, but also New Tecumseth and Wasaga Beach.

The plan also sets intensification targets in towns as well as rural municipalities, at lower densities, an option outlined in P2G, said Lorius, as Simcoe County is considered on the outer-ring of the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

“The province will have to be a partner in implementing this – not just included but a participant at OMB hearings,” he said.

“The province will have to be there to help us defend this. While the public is very supportive, perhaps they’re not aware of how big a deal this is, with the wide range of interests in Simcoe County.”

Feedback from the development community has consistently argued the population and job allocation numbers are too low, while the intensification targets and densities are too high, he added.

“I made a joke at one (municipality’s) meeting. We might as well have put a form letter (on the website) saying (population) targets are too low and density targets are too high,” he said.

“It’s a compliance exercise and there’s no question there will be serious consequences. It’s a challenge to be met.”

OMB hearings can be time-consuming and costly; last year, the hearing on the Big Bay Point Resort in Innisfil lasted 16 weeks and cost several million dollars – not counting staff time in Innisfil or at the county. The case continues, as the developer – who received approval for his plan – seeks $3.6 million in costs, to cover not only his own legal fees, but the town’s and county’s.