Inventory to be taken on lands for industrial development in Peterborough County

Peterborough County must stop idly hoping vacant lands will be sold for industrial development, said Cavan Monaghan Mayor Scott McFadden — it takes planning and pricey studies, he said, and he wants fellow county politicians to know it.

Take an inventory of your lands, McFadden told county councillors at a virtual meeting on Wednesday — examine them and decide how “usable” those lands truly are.

Otherwise county politicians expecting Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development president and CEO Rhonda Keenan to sell rural land when no studies have been done to prove they are suitable for development, McFadden said.

Keenan had just given a presentation to councillors and been asked whether she’s managing to attract new industry.

But McFadden then questioned whether fellow councillors are looking at wetlands, for example — which are often protected and unsuitable for development — as future employment lands.

“What have you done lately to take a look at the inventory you’re asking Rhonda (Keenan) to try to sell?” McFadden asked fellow councillors. “If it’s a swamp, it’s still a swamp.”

McFadden then spoke of how Cavan Monaghan Township bought 77 acres of vacant land along Highway 115 at Syer 8th Line in late 2019.

He told county councillors he expects it will take three years and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in studies — detailed plans for servicing the land, for example — to ensure the property is ready for future industrial development.

A private businessperson won’t have the time or money to go to that trouble, McFadden said: they’ll “move on” to consider other properties elsewhere.

“It’s not going to work,” he said. “And yet we continue to look back at Rhonda and say, ‘Rhonda, how are you doing, trying to sell the piece of land that nobody in their right mind is going to buy because they can’t afford to do all the studies?’”

“I’d really like to see a commitment from the county level,” he added. “Let’s do an inventory and see what we want Rhonda to sell.”

County councillors didn’t debate or discuss that idea — they listened.

County CAO Sheridan Graham said staff has recently issued a request-for-proposal for a consultant to update the county’s development charge study, this summer — and that study will include a growth analysis and inventory of employment lands.

Keenan said there is interest from the business community in relocating to this area, but there’s a lack of available lands — and she offered to bring back a report in the future on which lands are indeed available.