Consultant outlines Norfolk’s industrial needs

Luke Edwards

Grant Haven Media

Can Norfolk do anything with its industrial “scraps” or does the municipality need to find a shiny new plot of land to build out its employment base?

An Industrial Lands Needs Assessment performed by consultants urbanMetrics has found that while overall, Norfolk technically has enough industrial lands to meet long term requirements, several challenges exist that make the lands more difficult to market and develop. Those challenges include industrial lands that are split into smaller, noncontiguous sections, a lack of servicing, and infrastructure issues such as distancing from 400 series highways.

“The County has sufficient industrial land designated to meet long-term needs but lacks the serviced, market-ready parcels required to compete for business investment,” a staff report accompanying the consultant report said. 

“Without strategic intervention - including potential partnerships with private landowners, targeted infrastructure investment, and dedicated resources - Norfolk will continue to lose industrial opportunities to neighbouring municipalities.”

Additionally, much of the land is privately owned, adding an extra layer of complexity.

Consultants did offer four recommendations for staff and councillors to consider: continue to pursue existing opportunities with private landowners, focus on public-private partnerships before looking at costly land acquisition, consider a suite of six incentive programs, and centralize management through something like a municipal development corporation.

“Businesses are typically looking for shovel-ready sites with municipal services in place and right now, we can’t offer that. So we can’t attract businesses effectively,” said Stephanie Potter, manager of corporate initiatives.

The report found 255 hectares of land in Norfolk that’s technically usable, and projections suggest they’ll need around 203 hectares by 2051.

“While this analysis suggests a modest surplus, most identified lands are not currently marketable or investment-ready,” the staff report said.

“We have a big number but the number does not work for what our needs are,” said Coun. Linda Vandendriessche.

To make Norfolk more attractive for businesses to invest in, councillors asked staff and consultants both what an ideal industrial layout would be and what they can do with the existing patchwork.

“What’s the suggestion when a municipality finds themselves with a bunch of scraps?” asked Mayor Amy Martin.

Peter Thoma, a partner with urbanMetrics, said the suite of incentives is a way to entice landowners to make those smaller parcels more marketable. The incentives include tax breaks, grants, fee rebates and fast tracked approvals.

Responding to a question from Coun. Doug Brunton, Thoma said in an ideal world, the county would have a single large parcel that could allow for variety and flexibility.

“Around 100 hectares of land is the right sized parcel of land you should be looking for,” he said.

Despite the challenges, staff and consultants said there are some opportunities. The consultants recommend Norfolk focus on three sectors that match up well with the county’s other strengths: agri-food processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and defence manufacturing.

Cold storage facilities were also singled out as a specific need.

“There’s lots of opportunity in the ag space,” said Thoma.

Growing the industrial base of the county could go a long way to easing the financial challenges of the municipality and relieve some of the property tax pressure residents have felt in recent years.

Staff have been directed to offer some further review of the consultant’s findings and prepare a report outlining an Industrial Lands Needs Assessment implementation report.