Why a parcel of land on Waterloo region's east side is key to community's future economic prosperity
Thousands of hectares of land known as the East Side Lands are slowly being developed
There's a large parcel of land on the east side of the region that officials believe could see industrial businesses employ more than 40,000 people in the next 30 years.
The 2,600 hectares, or 6,000 acres, sits between the border of Kitchener and Guelph, north to Highway 7 and south to the Maple Grove Road area. The area was identified in the region's official plan, which received approval from the Ontario Municipal Board in June 2015 as land designated for employment uses. It's known as the East Side Lands.
It's a key location for manufacturers as it sits close to an airport, railway lines and Highway 401. For the region, which has a low industrial vacancy rate, it's a space to develop to bring more employers to the community.
The land will be developed in phases in the next 30 years. The first part of the project, expected to break ground later this year, will be the area north of Cambridge. Ground is scheduled to break sometime in 2021.
Regional Chair Karen Redman says the planned development is key to the future economic prosperity for the region.
"It's great that we have this industrial land that we can develop. But it's also uniquely placed not only within the region but also within the province," Redman said.
"So it's something that we certainly have talked to our provincial counterparts about the potential for investment in this area and certainly marketed it to private businesses to say come and settle here. There's so many great synergies with other already established businesses."
In Nov. 2019, the Ontario government launched a job site challenge across the province to find shovel-ready "mega" sites, between 200 to 600 hectares in the area, to encourage automotive and other advanced manufacturers to set up shop with the potential to create thousands of jobs. The program was the first of its kind in Canada.
In an April 2019 report to the region's economic development committee, staff recommended the region put forward the East Side Lands because it was "well positioned to support mid-to-large scale industrial proposals."
The region is currently waiting to hear from the province on whether an application to turn 364 hectares, or 900 acres, of land into a "mega site" will be accepted. A decision by the province is expected next month.
Phase One, north of Cambridge
While the region waits on decisions for future projects, work is underway on two of three phases scheduled for development.
The first of the three phases is located in the area of Allendale Road and Riverside Drive. It's an area officials say could support over 7,000 jobs.
The second of the three phases of work is south of Allendale Road and is being led by Intermarket Development. Company president Mark Kindrachuk says construction is underway on roads to guide where manufacturing buildings will be built.
"There is a lot of infrastructure being built now. We built the road called Boychuk Road, there's another road called Intermarket Road under construction now and it's going to be a range of technology based industrial uses. One of our first buildings, the data center, we're focused on groups like automation and robotics," Kindrachuk said.
International supply chains have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, and that has led some companies to look at what they can do domestically, instead.
"A lot of manufacturers are looking to come back to Ontario and Canada. Some of the groups that supply major users like Toyota have to be a lot closer and not over the border," he said.
Kindrachuk said over 13 years, his company has completed a number of reports, including environmental, on the East Side Lands. All the reports had to be shared with all levels of government and people living in the area were told of the work that was happening.
Neighbourhood concerns
The City of Cambridge says it has been keeping the public informed about the project for the last 10 years through ongoing public consultation with residents.
Those who own homes on Riverbank Drive started to notice a huge change to the landscape from their backyard.
Linda Farley is one of them and she has some concerns about the industrial activity that is going to be happening right behind her homes, which includes a loading dock and truck activity. She would like to see a buffer between the homes and the industrial buildings Kindrachuk's company are putting up.
"They could pass a bylaw prohibiting any industrial development or activity in the first 20 metres behind our homes, on the industrial land at a minimum," Farley said. "And they should make it forested as they had promised us, to block lights from loading docks"
But Kindrachuk says the company has addressed all the issues the neighbours have raised.
"The city came to us and we shifted the entire building and the driveway and the trucking movements at the rear. So it's about 20 meters from the property line," Kindrachuk said.
"The building was supposed to be 30 meters and we made it 32 meters to shift it further, as far away as possible. And we made a large, eight-foot noise barrier."
Encouraging development
Kindrachuk says ground breaking for his company's buildings should take place in the summer or fall of 2021 and those buildings should be operational by the summer of 2022.
The region hopes this is just the start. Officials say the East Side Lands are attractive because of their location and also because the region has a competitive industrial development charge rate that will hopefully attract investment.
Rod Regier, commissioner of planning, development and legislative services for the region, says that will only benefit the local economy and community.
"This is a classic large block employment-industrial land development and it's going to result in a very significant amount of investment in the Waterloo region with a significant number of jobs," he said. "It's not an insignificant amount of employment that we'll be seeing develop in this area over the relatively near future."
Redman agrees.
"It's key to our future economic prosperity, but it must be done in a very thoughtful way. And we're now at a juncture where we want to move forward with developing this," she said.