The Town of Grenfell has experienced some remarkable growth in population in recent years and this is now the time to reflect on the preferred future for the town. At the same time, the Town of Broadview and the Town of Whitewood have also agreed to have their respective municipalities cooperate on an inter-municipal basis to engage the services of a professional community planning consultant.
The three Towns recently signed a contract with DGMercer Eco Research based in Regina to undertake some planning work leading to the creation of a new Official Community Plan for the Town of Grenfell. The Official Community Plan will serve as the guiding policy document to aid Council in their decision making. This team of professionals will assist the Town with issues related to aging infrastructure, business attraction, housing and options for sustainable growth.
The objective is to research and prepare a new Official Community Plan for the Town of Grenfell and to also prepare a new Land Use Zoning Bylaw to manage and direct future growth in the town. On April 18, 2012 all three Town Councils were involved in a joint planning session with the consultants. In the future, the consultants will work with each town separately.
Dwight Mercer, Tim Cheesman and Ron Kerr from DGMercer Eco Research in Regina are an experienced team of professional land use planners. In addition, a professional engineer from AECOM-Regina has been brought in to undertake the engineering assessment work over the next several months.
A public opinion survey will be conducted in the Town to determine the issues of importance to residents and the results of this survey will be shared with Council and later may be incorporated into some of the policy development for the Town. Sometime over the next month residents will find a pink, two-sided questionnaire in their mailbox.
Speaking for the Town of Grenfell, Mayor Marc Saleski expressed optimism given the recent influx of people who have invested in homes and mortgages in the Town.
“Proper planning and engineering are necessary to ensure we are working from a good foundation of knowledge and have a clear direction on where we want to go as a town,” said Saleski. “The new Official Community Plan and Land Use Zoning Bylaw will be useful tools for Council.”
With the strength in the Provincial economy, oil exploration, expansion of the potash industry - now is the time to prepare for the future. In addition, more and more people are seeking the safe and friendly community lifestyle that we have to offer.
This presents the need to establish a vision for future development that will encourage growth within the town while respecting and maintaining the principals which have created and sustained us through some difficult times.
Grenfell is preparing a new Official Community Plan and a new Land Use Zoning Bylaw to better plan for the future of the Town - its citizens are welcome to participate in this process.
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