While they started out loud, the proponents behind the Poplar Regional Health and Wellness Village project have been mostly quiet for the past little while.
However they say there’s lots of work happening to prepare for a formal block plan application, which they are hoping will come to the town in late 2025.
When reached for comment this week, Armando Lopes, vice president of development with Di Poce Management Ltd., told CollingwoodToday that currently, conversations are ongoing between proponents Live Work Learn Play Inc./ Di Poce Management and the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital to finalize details on the land donation as part of the development for a future hospital build.
“Priority one is the hospital lands,” said Lopes. “Realistically, we need to set in stone where the hospital lands are going to be, because that’s going to have a ripple effect on the rest of the vision.”
“There’s a lot of work that we’re doing that nobody sees, but there is a lot of work happening.”
According to the initial vision for the project presented to council back in 2022, there will be seven key areas incorporated into the design of the village including a regional health and wellness campus that includes space for a new Collingwood and General Marine Hospital build, a market district, long-term care/assisted living facilities, bio-science and medical research facilities, an eco-wellness centre, a regional transit hub, student and workforce housing and sports medicine clinics.
As of now, Lopes said the vision for the project is still in line with what was presented to the public in 2022. Once the hospital donation details are agreed upon, Lopes said the development team will get to hammering out the logistics of the rest of the proposal.
“Our next step will be to update the vision,” he said, clarifying that block sizes and street layout may need to be adjusted depending on how much land the hospital will need. “The vision itself is intact.”
But all has not been quiet on the land at the corner Poplar Side Road and Raglan St. in the meantime.
Lopes said ecologists have been at the 130-acre site, along with the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, to delineate where the sensitive natural environmental areas exist.
“In certain areas where we may have proposed things in the vision, there are natural heritage features. We will massage the plans so there are no structures in those areas in an effort to preserve the natural environment,” he said.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced they had approved a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) for the Poplar project, to change the zoning from industrial to mixed-use to allow for the development.
In April of this year, the town publicly released the memorandum of understanding signed by the town and the proponents behind the project, which had been signed back in December 2023.
This past December shortly after the town signed the MOU with the developer, the province announced the Poplar MZO was among 14 projects across Ontario marked for enhanced monitoring due to limited progress.
This past April, minister of municipal affairs and housing Paul Calandra quietly revoked six MZOs, while making the decision to amend another.
However, the Poplar project wasn’t on either list. That monitoring is still underway, and the 14 projects including Poplar are planned to be tracked until mid-2025.
Lopes said Live Work Learn Play Inc. and Di Poce Management Ltd. have been providing the province with quarterly updates on progress as part of the monitoring.
“They are well-aware of exactly where we are today, and what we’ve tried to enhance discussion around is, this isn’t like one residential building, or industrial building. This is a project that will evolve over 15 or 20 years,” said Lopes.
“Getting everything ready for that is going to go beyond the 18-month monitoring process,” he said.
Lopes said that from his vantage point, conversations with the province on the progress for Poplar have been positive.
“This project isn’t favouring one group, or the developer. This has multiple implications for benefits all over the region,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, and it’s a passionate project.”
When asked if, at this point, it was still faster for the developer to get an MZO rather than go through the regular planning process for the zoning change, Lopes said having the MZO in hand has absolutely sped up the process.
“I don’t know that the conversion of the land from industrial employment to this mixed -se would have occurred under the normal Planning Act process,” he said. “In that way, it’s helped immensely.”
“I don’t think, without (the MZO), we would have the project.”
While reluctant to commit to specific timelines, Lopes said he’s hopeful the development team will have a block plan application ready to be submitted to the town sometime in mid to late 2025.
