Throughout the last few months there have been a series of meeting in our 3 villages to develop a Community Improvement Plan (CIP); there is now a proposed plan. The public meeting for the plan is Monday, September 8th at 6 PM in the Council Chamber. For those interested in the revitalization of the core in each of our villages this is a good opportunity to show your support by either endorsing the draft or providing feedback on how it could be better. If Council approves the CIP, budgeting funds for the grants will be an important item in our 2015 budget deliberations in the fall.
As a reminder: CIP’s are the tool we are using to encourage the private investment required to make the commercial cores of our villages a draw for people to visit them and to shop in them. Its a tool to help residents, business owners and investors plans for the evolution of their communities by encouraging private investment through use of grants and other incentives.
As I have indicated in earlier posts I believe this plan is really important for a couple reasons. It provides a picture of what we want our cores to be. By defining what we want, the stage is set for business owners to invest in a manner which harmonizes, or supports that picture; a few businesses cannot create a village core alone. Secondly, with a CIP the Township will be able to provide financial incentives for business owners to participate.
Here is the draft Community Improvement Plan which addresses the opportunities for revitalization of the cores of King City, Nobleton and Schomberg.
I have not read the reports but the Community Improvement Plan notion – which was first put forward over 6 years ago by the Economic Development Officer, Jamie Smythe, – is a wonderful tool to both protect and enhance the village cores of King City, Nobleton and Schomberg.
The biggest shame in all this is that it has taken over 6 years to come back to Council; but in the better late than never category…. I’m certainly glad to see that it has not been deferred forever.