- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

A quick mid-meeting post from last night's Owen Sound council meeting set off a fascinating flurry of comments.

Our Facebook post was about a proposed grocery store addition to the Villarboit Heritage Grove development on 16th Street East. In the artists' renderings, it is a FreshCo – one of the Sobey's family of 1,500 stores Canada-wide and growing.

I posted the image during the “public meeting” – a mandatory part of the development process. A notice of the meeting was published on the City website May 19, and on a sign on the property.

Villarboit's original proposal, in 2019, was for a hotel on this site. We don't know who was going to build that, but we do know that the cash flow of that industry took a huge hit during Covid, and it is still impacted by labour shortages and changes in travel habits.

But people are still eating. In theory, as many as 5,000 new people might be living in the area according to residential approvals in eastern Owen Sound and western Meaford. And Sobey's wants in on that market. It is not a matter of how many square feet of grocery store shelves Owen Sound NEEDS, it is straight-up competitive capitalism.

What interested me was the community reaction. No one was at the public meeting to speak to the suggested zoning changes. There were no letters from members of the public.

That part was not a surprise. Unless you are a municipal government geek like I am, or curious about signs by the road, it is unlikely that you knew about this proposed zoning change or public meeting.

But lots of people had comments on the concept of a FreshCo – or any grocery store – in that corner of town. They had many ideas about what they would personally prefer to see in Owen Sound – an IKEA, Costco, clothing store, or factory. Or where they would like to see a grocery store – Brooke being the number one choice.

While their neighbours returned the volleys with facts or rebuttals, the commenters kept it up, missing the most essential of facts.

First, the property is privately owned. The public, City planning staff and council have only limited input into what is built on private land, and even that is gradually being reduced by Doug Ford's planning policies and legislation.

There may be a point, as in 2009 when Walmart wanted to expand its footprint to create a Superstore with dozens of thousands of square feet of grocery, that a market analysis might be required that might impact a council decision at a later stage. But those will be written on the basis of those 5,000 theoretical new people, so it is not likely to make a difference even if it is still required. If sales numbers or corporate plans eventually close one of the grocery stores, that's capitalism in action.

Of course Metro tried to make that decision, twice, which would have closed the only remaining grocery store in downtown Owen Sound and the one that still serves a large population of non-driving and often lower/middle income residents. The mayors of the day, Ruth Lovell in 2004 and Deb Haswell in 2013, had clear words for head office officials of Metro.

The second interesting thing for me was the number of people yelling into the wind about what they thought we really needed in Owen Sound.

Again, these are corporate decisions, based on population density, available greenfield land (rarely do they want to clean up other people's messes), average income and education, and labour availability.

According to one source, Costco requires, “within a 5-mile trade area radius, 200,000 people and a median income of $75,000. Their target demographic also includes college educated, 2-person+ households.”

Owen Sound politicians and regional economic development staff can try to sell developers what we've got, but you can't sell what you don't. Especially to people who have a lot of studies that tell them where the money is and isn't.

What our City can do is continue to leverage what we do have – a full municipal water system, a college, a hospital, planned expanding residential housing (although workforce housing is still a big issue), and a beautiful setting.

But council and staff can and must keep an attentive eye on both the rules and trends.

Stormwater, drainage, heat islands, biodiversity and winter maintenance are all changing rapidly with global warming, and our policies must take the impact of these into consideration.

Growth must be made to pay for growth with rational Development Charges.

Demographic and migration patterns, the slow speed of school and daycare expansion, and labour market trends must be evaluated through data, not wishful thinking.

And when provincial legislative and regulatory changes which reward Doug Ford's developer friends do not benefit us, council must speak up. We need sane, sustainable growth, not desperate competition with our Ontario neighbours for fractions of a pie which our residents will never be able to eat.