Growth will be the topic at a combined committee meeting tonight, February 26, in Chatham.
The CK Plan 2035 Advisory Committee (CKPC), Community Development Advisory Committee (CDAC) and the CK to the Power of Young People Advisory Group is holding the joint meeting from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Studio One, inside the Cultural Centre in Chatham.
Members of the public are welcome to attend and observe the meeting.
The committees will be joining together to have a dialogue about the Growth Strategy, which has been presented to Chatham-Kent Council.
At their February 10 meeting, Council approved the following recommendation related to Chatham-Kent’s new growth strategy:
1. The definition and metrics adopted in the Chatham-Kent Growth Strategy be: a. Population, b. Jobs, and c. Tax Assessment
2. That the following targets be set as goals for Chatham-Kent: a. Population to increase at an annual rate of 1%, b. Jobs to increase at an annual rate of 0.5% (half percent), and c. Tax Assessment to increase at an annual rate of 1.5%
3. That administration continue to work on strategies to encourage and facilitate growth and report back with various options throughout 2020-2021.
“To achieve long-term sustainability as a community, Municipal Council began the discussion on the need for growth,” a staff report indicates.
“An open public strategy session focusing on growth was held January 14, 2020 at the John D. Bradley Centre.”
Staff said the purpose of the growth strategy session was to:
– Review the projected growth projections and impact,
– Confirm metrics to be used to define growth,
– Provide examples of practices and innovative ideas for growth, and
– Assess Council’s readiness to implement strategies that can fuel growth.
“No formal decisions were made in the session but rather it was an opportunity for Council and the Executive Management Team (EMT) to collaborate, envision the future of Chatham-Kent and discuss options that could support growth,” staff said in a report.
“Moving forward the feedback from the Growth Strategy session provides context for administration to investigate strategies that will support and increase population, jobs and tax assessment.”
Throughout the next 18 months, a number of policies/programs will be investigated and, if deemed valuable, will be brought forward to Council for consideration, staff said.
One of the programs is a new Community Improvement Plan (CIP) “to allow market driven investment for targeted needs throughout all of Chatham-Kent (i.e. rental/affordable housing, commercial and employment business growth).
“It is intended that the new comprehensive CIP would replace the existing Downtown, Commercial and Employment CIPs. It is proposed to bring forward and/or enhance the most popular programs from the existing CIPs and introduce new incentives focused on encouraging much needed rental housing and affordable housing. Consideration of a new CIP must follow a public planning process, similar to any planning application,” staff said.
Staff said they are looking into completing a background study to investigate additional development charges to support municipally owned growth-related infrastructure, with a view to implementing new development charges.
“For years, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has collected development charges to fund growth-related water and wasterwater infrastructure; however, the Municipality has not collected development charges on other eligible services, such as roads, stormwater works, etc.,” staff said in a report.
“Increased growth will continue to put pressure on needed growth related infrastructure. This is currently being experience based on the increased number of unfunded projects in the Municipality’s Capital Works Program.”
Other ideas staff is working on moving forward, include:
– Amendment of fees for building permits, planning applications and license fees to encourage targeted growth throughout Chatham-Kent.
– Investigation of the value of a non-profit land development corporation to support public and private partnership in land acquisition and development opportunities for identified investment in strategic areas.
– Investigation of new industrial public and privately owned business parks to encourage business and job growth.
– Proposals to prepare ‘shovel ready’ land (fully serviced) that is zoned appropriately for job growth.
– Initiate next phase of the Official Plan Review process once the new Provincial Policy Statement is issued by the Province.
– Suggestions to the PUC, Entegrus, fiber internet companies, and other public and private utilities, to encourage infrastructure and user growth of utility services in Chatham-Kent.
