Background

The Campus of Care, at the corner of Peel St and Hwy 26, on the West side of Thornbury,  is a major development project that could offer significant benefits to The Blue Mountains by addressing important housing needs:

• long-term care (LTC) beds,

• housing for seniors, and

• employee housing.

A Concept Plan for the project, along with background reports and information on

current status, is available at the following link:

CIHA - A different planning approach, but…

This is a large scale project, and it is being planned & developed with the use of a Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator (CIHA).  

CIHA is a provincial planning tool that seeks to speed up infrastructure development.  But the tool comes with some downsides.  It changes, and worse, can eliminate some of the public engagement functions we normally see in our development approval process.

Transparency & Trust Matter, a lot

Public engagement, based on full transparency, is extremely important in our Town.

The needs of our community, and the sustainability of this and all projects,  will always be best served by  maintaining public trust, and by building constructive relationships between residents, Staff and Council.

Public engagement will play a critical role in ensuring that the Campus of Care is successful.

We have questions.  Significant questions.

Residents have raised many questions about the Campus of Care, focused on issues ranging from the design of the project, to traffic management, to the cost of services and infrastructure.

A summary of key questions raised to date is provided below.

BMRA has requested responses from Town Staff and Council.  

• The Town has received an allocation of 160 Long-Term-Bed (“LTC”) beds by the Province. What are the specific conditions/requirements of this allocation? Does it expire at a certain date? If so, can this be extended?
  
  

• Why does the current Concept Plan include 6 large 5-storey buildings in a currently undeveloped predominantly rural part of Town? Can the Town control site and building design through available tools such as zoning and site plan control?
  
  

• What is the rationale for the 300+ multi-family units that have been added to the original concept of a long-term care facility, seniors housing, and labour force housing? Is the intention to sell or rent these units at market rates?
  
  

• Which housing units within the development will be attainable or affordable, and maintained as such over the long term?
  
  

• The Town has major infrastructure deficiencies that have been identified through various master planning processes. These include:

  • traffic congestion on Highway 26,

  • traffic and safety issues at the intersection of Highway 26 and County Road 113/10th Line,

  • capacity concerns at several wastewater pumping stations, and

  • drainage issues.

    
    How will these issues be managed?

• Why and how are decisions regarding services and infrastructure being made now, when only a very general Concept Plan is available? Which then raises more questions:

  • What will be the full cost of providing services and infrastructure to the Campus of Care?
    

  • How will infrastructure and services be funded? 
    

  • What portion of the infrastructure cost will be provided through the sale of the property to the developer, through development charges, or through other sources? 
    

  • What are the financial risks to the Town?
    
    

• Is the Town’s involvement limited to selling the land to the developer and providing access to Town infrastructure, with no further role regarding management of any aspect of the development?
  
  

• What are plans for public information and engagement for the next phases of design, approval and construction of the Campus of Care?

We will keep you informed

As we get answers from the town to these many questions, we will keep you informed.