SIMCOE COUNTY Warden Tony Guergis is encouraging the public to take an interest in the county's growth management plan, which includes a new transportation master plan and natural heritage study.

At a public open house Friday, at the Simcoe County Museum in Midhurst, the public got an overview of the three projects.

Guergis, during a formal presentation, urged that people consider the information and share their comments with county officials, saying what's contained in the documents will impact life in Simcoe County over the next quarter century.

"Please check the [county] website, look at the reports and educate yourself on the process," he told the crowd, composed of residents, planners, county staff, lower-tier municipal politicians and developers.

The Simcoe County growth management plan will theoretically determine how the county is to develop between now and 2031.

Simcoe County's overall population allocation in the plan is 228,400 for a total population of 667,000.

That includes 51,500 new people in the City of Barrie and 9,600 in the City of Orillia.

In total, the plan calls for Simcoe County to have 47,800 new jobs by 2031 for a total of 139,900.
When the cities of Barrie and Orillia are factored in, the job number jumps to 254,000. The bulk of jobs are to be based in the Innisfil-Bradford corridor, according to the plan.

The growth plan exercise, underway since last year, is part of the county's Official Plan review.

The exercise ties into the province's 2006 Greater Golden Horseshoe Plan, a big picture document which sets out population numbers for counties in that geographic region around Lake Ontario.

The Greater Golden Horseshoe Plan is in response to the province's Places to Grow Act, which mandates regional growth plans.

Antony Lorius of Hemson Consulting, working on behalf of the county, covered the key points of the county's growth plan at Friday's meeting.

He noted what the plan sets out to accomplish is "decidedly not business as usual."

The provincial and county plans aim to create more complete communities that offer more options for living, working, learning, shopping and playing in the next 25 years.

Kevin Jones of Earth Tech, another consulting firm working for the county, gave a review of the Transportation Master Plan.

The plan calls for upgrading county roads over the next 25 years to better accommodate the transportation needs of residents, visitors to the region and businesses.

The plan also calls for new county roads in the region, including an east west road connecting New Tecumseth and Bradford West Gwillimbury and an east-west link that gives quick access from Clearview Township to Hwy. 93 in Oro-Medonte Township.

The county will also advocate over the next 25 years for a wider Hwy. 400.

The plan also calls for car pool parking lots along county roads to curtail the number of vehicles using county roads.

And there is a transit plan, where in the next 25 years the county will look at ways to increase public transit. This means existing transit services in such places as Collingwood servicing smaller communities such as Stayner. Another concept is regional bus and rail service between municipalities in the county.

For example, Jones said it's conceivable that someday a train could transport skiers to Collingwood in the winter.

Consultant Anthony Usher worked on the county's natural heritage study.

The project, which must still be finalized, involved using old and new data to determine the county's forests, rivers, creeks and wetlands.

Two other public information open houses to go over the growth plan, transportation plan and natural heritage study have taken place in recent days as well. One was April 24 in Midhurst and another on April 29 in Alliston.

The feedback from all three of the public meetings will be reviewed by the county's growth management steering committee in the coming weeks.

Clearview Township Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage said recently that if all goes, as it should, county council at its May 27 meeting could adopt the growth plan.

For information and feedback on the county's plans, click the link provided