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No completion date available on Hansen Boulevard construction

May 15, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Owners of a stalled Orangeville housing development cite a development charge credit agreement with the town as a key milestone toward the project’s completion.

Trish Elliott of NG Citrus Ltd. appeared before Orangeville council during its May 12 meeting.

The company owns land southwest of the Blind Line and Hansen Boulevard intersection and west of the Meyer Drive and Mason Street residential area. It’s the site of a residential subdivision development known as the Edgewood Valley Phase 2B.

The development proposes 51 single detached dwelling lots, 17 on-street townhouses, and a low-density residential block of about 50 condominium townhouses.

It will have open space conservation lands associated with the Lower Monora Creek South tributary. The development will include a stormwater management pond block at the northwest corner of Hansen Boulevard and Blind Line.

The town’s Development Charges (DC) Background Study identified the piece of Hansen Boulevard between Blind Line and Veteran’s Way as important for future growth. Revenue from DCs is intended to cover the infrastructure required for that growth.

A developer is responsible for completing all required infrastructure to support their development. That’s either new infrastructure and increases or expansions to existing infrastructure. As growth and development proceeds within the broader community, increases to services and infrastructure are needed to accommodate this cumulative growth.

DCs enable municipalities to collect funds from new developments to cover costs for expansions or improvements to infrastructure and services that will support this broader growth generated by new developments.

For Edgewood Valley Phase 2B, NG Citrus has to fully construct the remaining segment of Hansen Boulevard within their plan and to a local condition that they would normally be required to construct at their expense. A local condition typically equals an 18.5 metre-wide right-of-way.

Hansen Boulevard is a planned major collector road. So it must be a 30-metre-wide right-of-way serving other development areas beyond the planned subdivision.

Basically, NG Citrus has to construct a 30-metre wide thoroughfare as opposed to the typical 18.5-metre road. And, according to a report to council, that work falls under a class of services covered by DCs.

As compensation for costs to upsize that infrastructure, NG Citrus is entitled to credits toward their development charges payment obligations.

“Essentially, the remaining Hansen Boulevard segment will be built entirely by the developer at their cost up-front,” according to the report. “Once completed to the town’s satisfaction, the developer can proceed with satisfying this and other draft approval conditions towards final approval.”

Then home construction can proceed and, as building permits are issued, the developer will receive credits toward their development charges payable.

“The total costs of all eligible upsizing works to complete Hansen Boulevard to a major collector road condition will be credited towards the DCs owing for the dwelling units in the 2B Plan,” the report said.

For the Hansen Boulevard segment on municipally owned right-of-way land, such as between the creek crossing and College Avenue intersection, the developer is entitled to reimbursement of its costs to construct this segment. It is on town-owned property and land that would have been completed by previous developments.

Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor asked about the confidence of the NG Citrus group in the current real estate economy.

“How is your group feeling about the potential for sales of real estate at this strange time that we all find ourselves in,” Taylor said.

It seemed Taylor was trying to get a feel for a timeline for the subdivision’s completion.

“To me, if the percentage was low to medium, what’s the thoughts then on Hansen coming?” Taylor said. “You need funding to be able to move your project forward and that’s why the sales portion is of interest.”

“I’m not going to start throwing out numbers,” Elliott said, and acknowledged that the real estate market is quite a challenge. “There’s not a lot of houses that are moving. On the bright side of this, and we have to be optimistic and look forward to it, is we’ve done a lot of work leading up to this.”

The subdivision’s sales centre is opening soon and there are launch events planned.

“We’re feeling quite optimistic,” Elliott said. “It’s obviously not something within our control and we like to focus on things we can control.”

Taylor said there are frustrated people in the community who expect NG Citrus to provide firm dates about the development and its associated road.

Indeed, Orangeville officials and residents have waited many months for the developer to complete work on the subdivision so the Hansen Boulevard connection west of Blind Line can be done.

Concurrent with the Phase 2B subdivision approval process, the design of a creek crossing project began in September 2020. Construction was completed in August 2023. With that structure in place, residents have waited for the developer to construct the road.

They’ve waited.

And they’ve waited, sometimes not so patiently.

Taylor asked if it is fair to say that the questions about when the project or its road will be completed won’t be available even by this coming winter.

“We want to proceed,” Elliott said. “We want to build this community. We want to build this road. We’re trying everything we can to make that happen.”

Ultimately, she said she couldn’t provide a firm date for the road’s completion.

“The moment we know what that date is, trust me, you guys will know,” she said. “We will be sharing that as soon as we can.”

Taylor said council has been “trashed” because of the development’s delay and its effect on the road’s completion.

Elliott said there has been much work accomplished but it has been behind the scenes, invisible to the public.

“We’re still tagging along with you,” Taylor said. “We want this thing done just as much as anybody and I know you do too. So thank you for being here and investing in our community. We’ll get this done.”

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