Wellington North held its first open house on Sept. 7 to gather feedback about growth in the community.
Wellington North is expected to grow to 17,685 by 2041, from its current population of 12,490. The township is also expected to add about 2,400 jobs.
How and where to grow are part of a growth plan conducted by GSP Group for the township.
At the first open house at the Mount Forest Sports complex, Mayor Andy Lennox said council can not bring in business or develop housing, but it can help others make it happen.
“We believe that growth and change is coming to our community, and we’re trying to get started on being prepared for it,” he said.
“We want you to try to help us get a broad perspective on some of the challenges and opportunities that we face, so that council can try and make the best decisions.”
The growth plan will create a local strategy for managing the planned population and employment growth.
It will align with other sectors such as infrastructure, transportation and community services.
Steve Wever of GSP Group explained the growth numbers are set by the province and county.
“There is some direction at the provincial and county level about where that growth should be accommodated,” said Wever.
“Primarily, growth should occur in serviced urban areas such as Arthur and Mount Forest, but we recognize that there are things like rural economic development opportunities.”
He continued, “We are looking out to 2041, but growth doesn’t happen because you wrote a plan about it. Development is affected by a full range of things: market forces, land availability, prices, demand, all of those things.
“But this is about trying to remove barriers and create a framework for growth.”
The Community Growth Plan is currently in phase one, which is gathering data, research, analysis and community and stakeholder engagement.
The next phase of consultation and feedback is expected in November.
Preferred growth options are expected to be presented in December and the final report will be given to council in the first quarter of 2018.
Part of the plan is to look at expected growth locations, demographics and barriers that prevent growth.
“Arthur has grown fairly slowly,” said Wever, noting the village is expected to grow to 3,670 in 2041 from the current population of 2,725.
“Some of you may know there’s servicing constraints there that the township is working to overcome,” said Wever.
“There’s a lot of growth potential, I think, in Arthur, because of that location close to a number of other urban areas.”
Mount Forest has seen more growth and is expected to expand to 9,230 in 2041 from the current population of 5,190.
“(Mount Forest) has more servicing available, but it has a number of amenities and attractions that make it a great place to be,” said Wever.
He added Arthur and the rural areas of Wellington North are home to a younger population than Mount Forest – and this will affect how the towns grow.
Wellington County as a whole is expected to grow from 90,932 to 140,000 by 2041.
“Within the county, Wellington North is predicted to be one of the faster growing municipalities. I think Centre Wellington may be the only other that has more growth allocated to it,” said Wever.
Economic development officer Dale Small said there won’t be any changes to the urban boundaries, adding the growth plan will look at the best use of land to meet the needs of the community.
Small is encouraging all Wellington North residents to participate in a growth plan survey available at wellington-north.com.
The survey is available until the end of September.
