Economic Base Analysis - Investment Focused Strategy
Collingwood 2000/2005

Economic Development Solutions

The Economic Development Department reports that the total inventory of available zoned and serviced employment land in Collingwood is around 3.5 acres. Without an adequate supply of land, new and expanding businesses will be forced to bypass Collingwood to grow and develop.

The Town must move quickly to replenish the inventory of employment lands within the community in order to help re-balance residential to non-residential development.

The problem cannot be left to the private sector to resolve. With the exception of communities within the GTA, the fair market value of industrial and employment land in Ontario is generally too low to attract the interest of private sector developers. In fact in many communities the cost of servicing a business park is higher than the market value of the resulting serviced land.

To ensure adequate inventories of employment land most local governments are forced to acquire service and sell employment land directly. Land must be considered an essential piece of infrastructure, like sewage and water service. The economic benefit to the community from making this investment far outweighs the cost.

Also, in recognition of the shifting economic base of the community from manufacturing to knowledge based services, Collingwood should consider broadening the definition of permitted uses in its employment zones.

Increasingly professional services such as design, engineering, architectural and other consulting companies are setting up in business parks with campus-like amenities where they can stretch out in larger footprint buildings and their employees and customers can benefit from easier access and more parking.

The mixing of light industrial and professional/technical services seems to work very well in many of the prestigious business parks in Ontario.

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