EcDev committee updated on Howard Industrial lands

Amherstburg Municipal Building.

The town’s economic development advisory committee received an update on rezoning the Howard Industrial Lands in advance of a public meeting that is occurring next month.

The town is trying to create a secondary planning area bounded by North Townline (County Road 8), Howard Ave., North Side Road and Concession 8 North. 

According to a report from Deputy CAO/director of development services Melissa Osborne: “At the August 8, 2022 Council meeting direction was provided to complete a Secondary Plan for the Howard Industrial Park District. On December 5, 2022 Council approved in Interim Control By-Law, which effectively ensured that redevelopment in the area would be more controlled within a specific set of rules until such time as the full secondary plan was finalized and adopted by Council. This ensured limited risk of development of lands which would not be consistent with the final plans for the area. The statutory public meeting was held on Aug. 14, 2023 and the final report brought back and adopted by Council Nov. 27, 2023. There was an appeal received and as such it was not until Feb. 12, 2025 in which Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) rendered their decision on the matter, thereby confirming approval of the Secondary Plan into the Town’s Official Plan.”

Osborne said during the committee meeting it has been a long process to get the over 700 acre site to “get the site ready” to rezone them to light and medium industrial.

“While our main Official Plan update for the town as a whole was before council as a statutory public meeting a couple of weeks ago, two things happened,” explained Osborne.

First, she said after the meeting was held on the draft OP, Bill 5 and Bill 17 were approved by the provincial government.

“Both of which have implications on our Official Plan and we need to step back and take those into consideration,” she said.

Second, the County of Essex’s Official Plan had been with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The ministry gave the county a set of recommendations after reviewing that.

“The county needs to take a look at those changes from the ministry, adopt them into their OP, after which our OP will need to ensure that we are consistent to what the county’s is. It has actually delayed our Official Plan from being updated, after which our town-wide zoning (bylaw) was going to follow,” she said. “Rather than waiting for those things to happen, we pulled out the Howard Industrial Area, similar to doing the industrial plan. We’re bringing the zoning forward.”The statutory public meeting on the proposed rezoning will be Aug. 11 at 5 p.m.

“Barring any unexpected information coming from that discussion, it should be brought back in September to council for approval,” she said. “After which, those lands will be in a hold. There will be a hold symbol and will remain as they are right now if they are agricultural or agricultural/residential but if somebody wants to buy them for industrial, all they have to do is remove the holding zone, which will allow them to move forward quickly.”

Osborne said there is an urgency to get these lands rezoned, and the town does not want to wait until 2026.

Committee member Ken Morrison asked if moving forward with the secondary plan will be impacted due to Bill 5 and Bill 17. Osborne said the town is not seeing anything in the bills that will impact the secondary plan as the latter has already been approved as an Official Plan amendment.

“It’s just having the zoning match up with that Official Plan now,” said Osborne.

What might impact those lands due to Bill 17 is that if a developer provides professional studies to the town, “we must deem them complete.” Previous practice was to review the documents and if the proponent didn’t look at something or weren’t aware of something, the town would ask the developer to update the document.

“The way this legislation works, unless a developer is willing to change the timeline to allow for that discussion, they can push to bring it before council in which case there is a risk we don’t support it as well. It creates more opportunities for OLT (hearings),” she said. 

Osborne added OP issues can also be dealt with.

Committee member Alan Buterbaugh asked about having the lands “shovel ready” and wanted to know what investments can be made in the properties. He cited sewer and road works having to be done in the area. As the town doesn’t own the lands, Osborne said they are creating opportunities for landowners by doing the OP and zoning so that grants could applied for.

“That helps them with that,” she said.

The Community Improvement Plan will provide additional opportunities regarding development charges, breaks on planning and building study applications and tax rebates.

The road needs studies for the area has started, Osborne added, and once that is completed, there will be a better idea of where they go. The McGregor lagoon study was funded to consider a solution on what wastewater to that area would look like.

“We do believe there are several industries that did not require the wastewater capacities that are needed for much larger plants. Maybe we end up with ten or 20 job businesses in that area, still achieving our goals of activating it,” said Osborne.

EcDev committee updated on Howard Industrial lands

By Ron Giofu