Up to 5,000 new homes could be built in northwest end of Lindsay

A major development is moving forward in the northwest end of Lindsay.

The first phase of the Jennings Creek Community Development Plan will see 413 detached homes, 275 mixed-use units and 176 townhouses built north of Colborne Street and east of Highway 35.

The residential development will grow around a new commercial development, which will likely feature a Walmart store.

“Everybody is talking about a Walmart. Are they negotiating with Walmart? Sure they are,” said Andy Letham, mayor of the City of Kawartha Lakes. “Hopefully, that will come to fruition. There are four or five other commercial retailers they are negotiating with. Along with the housing, it will be a nice addition to our community.”

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The other two tracts of land to the north of the Jennings Creek Community Development up to Thunder Bridge Road, are also earmarked for future residential development. If it’s all developed, it could add up to 5,000 new homes in Lindsay.

“This is the first one-third of that property that has got their plans in and approvals in,” Letham said. “I’m sure that will just trigger phase two and phase three just up the road.”

Under the Places to Grow Act, the Ontario government has given municipalities specific targets for population growth.

The City of Kawartha Lakes currently has 75,000 people. By 2031, the target population is 107,000.

“(The new housing builds) would accommodate a large portion of the development. It’s certainly the biggest portion,” said Chris Marshall, director of planning for the City of Kawartha Lakes. “Part of the mandate of the growth plan (is) you have to create infill within the existing developed areas so that you’re doing higher densities of development.”

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Kingsmen Group purchased the land from Mason Homes in late 2017.

The new developers are making some small changes to the plans including where parks and a possible new school, should the school board need it, would go.

“We’re not really changing the densities or the amount of development there. We’re just moving some things around to suit the new property owner’s desires,” Marshall said.

Some nearby landowners had concerns about traffic, but the revised plan will see only a few entrances to the development off of Colborne and Hwy 35. There will also be “window streets” built within the development.

“You want to avoid single family homes with driveways backing onto busy streets,” Marshall said. “What we try and do is have a street within a street. It enables people to get out onto the more localized street which then goes to the busier collector streets.”

Significant road upgrades are planned for Colborne, including widening it to four lanes and rehabilitating the intersection at 35.

Right now, construction crews are working to fill the land and bring some areas up by as much as 3 metres.

That’s expected to take most of the year with some infrastructure going into the site as early as the fall.