CAO says city is attempting to manage extraordinary growth

Local business owners wonder if we’re ready but also see opportunities

Wally Nugent, owner of Wally’s Haircutting for Men, has been working in the downtown for 51 years in five different locations.

As Lindsay gets set to experience record growth, one of his big concerns is the number of doctors available and the lack of medical facilities for new doctors.

“How will the community cope with this shortage of medical staff as the community grows even further?” he asks.

While that is a multifaceted issue and not easy for only the city to deal with, Chief Administrative Officer Ron Taylor and his staff are looking for effective ways to manage the unprecedented growth overall that the city will face over the next 30 years.

Not only will Lindsay almost double in population by 2031, to about 42,000, but Kawartha Lakes will balloon to close to 100,000 people over the same time. When asked about this growth, Taylor says that most of it will be in Lindsay, with modest growth in other areas such as Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Omemee and Woodville.

Taylor points out that almost 22,000 new homes are expected to be built by 2051 with 16,700 of them to be built in Lindsay.

“Lindsay is where the demand for growth is occurring,” Taylor says, “and where the servicing and infrastructure and amenities like the hospital, college, shopping, and transit are in place to support growth.”

Taylor adds that the municipality’s growth plan encourages most of the new units to be in Lindsay to capitalize on some of the infrastructure listed above.

The CAO expects that some commercial growth will accompany this explosion of new homes over the next few decades, but that the majority of commercial growth will be in population-supporting jobs such as healthcare and retail, rather than industrial.

To make these new builds possible, Taylor tells the Advocate that documents like the Water and Wastewater Servicing and Master Capacity Plan will be critical. This was first initiated in 2023 to identify the existing service constraints and provide a long-term water and wastewater servicing structure. Taylor also expects to see other infrastructure growth supports, including road and bridge expansions. Landfill capacity will also be considered.

The CAO adds that as growth occurs, population amenities and services such as parks, trails, community spaces, parking, recreation facilities and more will be expanded.

These amenities all differ in size, scale and timing. He said a large capital project such as a new community centre would take two to three years to build. The city’s plan is to continue to use existing community amenities by refreshing or expanding capacity before building new amenities.

Taylor confirms that with growth will be a necessary expansion of staff to ensure the city moves forward in an organized manner.

“Staffing will be resourced alongside development stages,” Taylor says. Staff demand fluctuates depending on the phase of development. For example, planning staff are used a lot in the development phase. Whereas building, engineering and permitting staff resources are added on and used in the development reviews and approvals stage.

“We are currently expanding staffing in these areas to meet the demand. Operations staffing will expand with population growth and service demand. This effects such departments as fire, police, paramedics, community services, public works and human services.”

Taylor also addressed the concerns many residents have expressed to the Advocate that the newly renovated downtowns in Lindsay, Fenelon Falls, Bobcaygeon and Omemee have the potential of becoming traffic bottlenecks and parking nightmares, especially in the Lindsay of the future where the lion’s share of growth will occur.

“Downtowns across the city will remain as destinations for existing and future residents,” Taylor said, noting the city is monitoring parking.

Small business owners concerned, hopeful

Even though the city is monitoring the parking capacity in Lindsay, Nugent, the hairstylist, said he’s concerned about traffic flow in town, and with the lack of affordable housing.

For Jeff Tompkins of RJT Office Solutions in Cambridge Mall, he says parking in the downtown core “is tight already and adding more cars will make it harder for people to shop at all the stores downtown.”

“They will get frustrated trying to park and go elsewhere. More parking infrastructure will help.”

In fact, a 2021 parking study looked at parking in downtown Fenelon Falls, Lindsay and Bobcaygeon already to ensure adequate parking until 2031, or even when the city reaches a population of 100,000, according to Taylor.

One positive of the massive growth Nugent sees is all the retirees who are moving to town “are community-minded people” who will be good for the town.

Tim James, broker for Affinity Group realty in Lindsay, strikes a positive note about the growth.

“This is a very exciting time,” he says. “Lindsay is well positioned to become the central hub of the Kawartha Lakes.”

James says with more people able to work remotely, coupled with our proximity to the GTA, “Lindsay is fast becoming an option for people who want to experience small town living.”

The realtor says we must trust that “our municipal leaders will work with the developers to make sure that the town grows in a…responsible manner.”

James says he is excited about the prospect of Lindsay becoming a “commercially self-sustaining community.”

Many “residents have traditionally shopped in Peterborough or Oshawa,” he adds. This new opportunity with so much added growth will bring prosperity to both local businesses and big businesses, “but also create economic conveniences,” along with providing a small-town experience.

Tompkins agrees there are opportunities for the downtown core, although he is worried about the lack of industry and jobs to be able to support “such rapid growth and development.”

The chance for “downtown business to grow and really succeed,” are there, he says, and “more people mean more customer opportunities to visit our stores.”

Tompkins also believes that creating more activities to bring people to the downtown core will “really create a sense of community that will unite the locals and our new neighbours.”

From the city’s perspective, Taylor says the approach for downtowns is to encourage intensification of homes and businesses near the core, and that means creating connected downtowns to nearby amenities through walking, cycling and transit services.

That will come as good news for another realtor in Lindsay, Tracy Hennekam, broker at Royale Town & Country Realty in the downtown.

She says “of course more houses is great for me as a realtor.”

But she wonders about the lack of town buses or a viable Uber service. “I see a lot of people walking,” and she wonders if that’s because of a lack of transportation services.

Like Nugent, she also cites medical care as a concern for so many more people, and adds education to the list of concerns, wondering if there is enough school capacity.

Challenges like this to the municipality’s growth often call for looking at successful practices in other places. The CAO was asked if council members and staff had travelled to other communities that had experienced this level of rapid growth, and if so, what had they learned?

“We’re looking to our senior staff with invaluable experience from high-growth areas. These individuals understand the essential groundwork needed to support development.”

One of the city’s core principles, he says, is that growth should sustain itself. Taylor believes that where possible and feasible, growth should pay for growth. This means utilizing development charges to ensure that new development contributes to the critical infrastructure required to support it.

By doing so, Taylor said the city can hopefully aim to alleviate the tax burden on Kawartha Lakes residents, preventing the need for significant increases in the general tax levy to fund essential infrastructure capital.

Hennekam says that overall, she is looking forward to the growth, saying the increased diversity will be good for the community.

“Adding money, with the building charges and development charges, to our economy is also good.”

– with files from Roderick Benns.