Growth in Orillia came to a halt in 2012 with the global economic downturn, but it’s beginning to slowly recover.
Orillia, like other communities across the province and country, saw industry gutted over the past five years, said Dan Landry, the city’s economic development manager.
“We had all kinds of things that have changed that are not coming back,” he said. “It’s a whole new reality.”
Development in Orillia had been rising slowly up until about 2012, said Kelly Smith, the city’s chief building official.
The total value of building permits issued by the city rose steadily from about $60 million in 2008 to more than $105 million in 2011, but in 2012, the total value of the permits plummeted to little over $28.5 million. It climbed back up to about $37 million in 2013.
Industrial growth — which, in terms of building permits, generates comparatively low revenue for the city — is one of the biggest challenges, Landry said, but the city recognizes it’s one of the most important pieces of the puzzle.
With industry comes employment, he said, which brings people to the area who need somewhere to live and shop.
In 2010, Orillia issued a moratorium on industrial development charges to encourage existing factories and warehouses to expand and new ones to set up shop.
Over the next two years, heating-unit company CCI Thermal and steel foundry Kubota Materials Canada, both of which were already in town, took advantage of it to grow their plants.
Summary 2012 (Text)
CCI and Kubota combined employ about 400 people, a number of whom are skilled labourers making more than minimum wage.
“Those are the jobs that feed into the commercial and retail sector and the residential sector,” Landry said. “Those are the ones that, if we can stimulate, a domino effect kicks in.”
The first sign things had begun to stagnate in 2012 was the decline in residential development in, Smith said. The city made about $11 million on permits, which is about half of what it normally does. In 2013, commercial development followed suit.
“Our housing sector is recovering and so now in another year we’ll see the commercial sector recover,” Smith said.
While she said residential growth is typically reliant on industrial and commercial growth, new industrial and commercial projects can only be undertaken on land zoned for them.
Most of that is on the edge of the West Ridge neighbourhood, Smith said, where Rotary Place and Lakehead University were built off University Avenue in the late 2000s.
She’s forecasting building permits will be issued for commercial and industrial development on the 18 hectares of employment lands across the street.
The city is still negotiating with the Ministry of Transportation, which has concerns over the potential traffic impact in the area of Highway 11, the Highway 12 bypass and Old Barrie Road.
Smith said she’s heard there are businesses interested in relocating to the employment lands, but are concerned about what the financial costs of doing so could be, since its been floated developers could have to pay a chunk of the cost to improve the intersection.
West Orillia isn’t the only area slated for development.
The north ward will be home to the new $27.5-million high school, expected to go up this year on the former site of Park Street Collegiate Institute.
Two residential housing developments — one on Gill Street and one on Canterbury Circle off Sundial Drive — are newly completed. Another is going to be constructed on the old Atlas Block property near Highway 11 and Laclie Street.
“Out that end of the city, there are no grocery stores. There are not a lot of convenience stores. There’s no fast food,” Smith said. “There’s potential now in that area.”