The Centre Wellington planning department met a large number of the goals in its strategic plan, Director of Planning Brett Salmon told a special council meeting here Monday morning.
He cited six major accomplishments, including finishing the new zoning bylaw. It replaces five bylaws that were in place from amalgamation. Salmon told council there was one appeal, but that change was negotiated, so the bylaw is now in place.
As well, the township has design guidelines for new developments. They were done in February and presented to the public in April. He said the department is now reviewing the means for implementing them, and that will include considering the official plan policies, development standards, and site plan standards.
One issue that has been a problem for all municipalities is civic addressing. Salmon said the township has now completed a review about 12,000 records that resulted in 3,057 corrections to the old municipal records. That is in the database now, as are the 378 new addresses that staff found.
Salmon explained those addresses were vacant lands. Several townships did not have a municipal address for vacant land, but now all parcels are accounted for.
He noted there was no 2009 allocation in the budget for street renaming, which is becoming an issue because of duplication, especially in dispatching of emergency personnel.
Staff has managed to collect and integrate all the Global Positioning System data for Public Works Department assets. It has also managed to create and maintain a sidewalk inventory and data model for that department.
It also created created PDF mapbooks for the fire department’s dispatch.
He said the latter are “very useful” and the township is ahead of other, larger municipalities in that regard. He said some larger municipalities’ officials have told Fire Chief Brad Patton “what we’ve done, they can’t do. We found a way.”
Salmon said the challenges included a shortage of cash in this year’s budget for the official plan review, and without a 2010 budget approval, the department cannot hire a consulting team to complete the official plan review as intended. He added there is some money left over for that project, and it will not likely all be used, so the department will try to do some of that work in house. He said that means needing less money for it in 2010.
He also noted as the Global Information System database grows, so does the staff time needed to run it.
As for revenues, Salmon said the first six months were good, but there was a drop-off after that. Consequently, the township is likely to not meet its revenue target this year.
He said it is not unusual in a recession to fail to meet revenue targets.
When it comes to partnerships, the department has used Greenlands Centre Wellington’s landscape analysis so mapping is ongoing.
Centre Wellington has also become a member of the Ontario Geospatial Data Exchange, which gives direct access to the Ontario government’s available GIS datasets. A separate agreement gives the township direct access to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s parcel datasets.
The township is collaborating with the county planning department on the Places to Grow conformity amendment and implementation.
Salmon said that in 2010, the density for development in Centre Wellington will increase by 20%, which is a big jump.
