Erin responds to public's growth and development questions

Erin council has collectively published responses to questions posed at the growth and development meeting on Jan. 14.

The Advertiser has matched the responses to the questions posed at the meeting.

How is council going to choose which developer gets to develop the 25 hectares of land for servicing?

“We have approximately 210 hectares of future development land presently designated in our official plan. We are not likely to see any change in that allotment as we are up against the greenbelt and other constraints. Council will have to decide in the near future who receives serviced growth. industrial, commercial, and current in-fill lots within the urban boundary will require a portion of that servicing,” said the response.

Is council looking at alternative, newer sewage treatments?

“In February we will be selecting the engineering firm that will continue the EA process. Step 3 of that process will consider all alternatives regarding treatment technologies. Performance based systems versus traditional methods of constructing and managing a wastewater system will be examined and decided on,” said the letter.

Can the town work collaboratively with other townships to keep costs down?

“The cost of hooking up to another wastewater system like Georgetown is prohibitive even if they were interested,” stated the response.

Is council looking into alternate funding models? Can the builders and developers pay for the capital costs?

“We are not excluding the public/private combinations of financing a system at this time. Council will consider all financing solutions moving forward. Infrastructure Ontario and Canada Infrastructure are both avenues of financing. Please be assured that this council will not proceed if it is financially not viable to do so for the municipality or our residents ... Financing can also be a part of negotiations with the development community,” the letter stated.

The full letter can be found at http://goo.gl/qHklO0.