POLICY BACKGROUNDER
COMMUNITIES REDEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
From 2018 to 2022, in my role as Chair of the Township's Economic Development Committee, I also chaired the development of a 'Downtown Revitalization Plan' for the core of Sharbot Lake. With the support of the Province of Ontario, the Township, the Sharbot Lake Business Group and others, we created a comprehensive -and ambitious - plan for the village that would capitalize on the major street reconstruction that took place in 2020.
That report was completed, and is available for viewing here.
But that work leads to two more challenges:
1. Seeing through the recommendations of the Sharbot Lake plan
2. Providing other villages and hamlets in Central Frontenac an 'Economic Roadmap' to build the local economies there
Based on the experience of other municipalities, and the lessons learned through this process, I have been pushing for (and will continue to push for) the creation of a new Economic Development Committee equal to the task.
My proposal is for a "Communities Redevelopment Committee" that would have working groups in each village and hamlet to both create local plans and to work on making the recommendations a reality. Those groups would bring together local businesses, community groups, recreation committees, lake associations, and others to sit at the same table and set priorities for one objective - how do we encourage growth in our village?
Working groups in Parham/Tichborne, Godfrey/Piccadilly, Mountain Grove and Arden can take the example of the Sharbot Lake Development Plan already bought and paid for and developitheir own Community Revitalization Plan that works for them. Together with a Sharbot Lake that takes their completed plan and works to achieve those goals, we can move toward creating a local economy that provides jobs and services for people in this Township.