Accepting applications: Essex forming focus group to refine Colchester Secondary Plan

by Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative

The Town of Essex is creating a focus group that will help refine the Colchester Secondary Plan, which sets out a cohesive vision and a set of planning directions for the future growth and development for this specific area at the southern-end of the municipality.

  As part of the focus group, the Town of Essex is looking to bring around ten individuals – residents, community members, and stakeholder with a diverse range of opinions – together to help staff refine the Colchester Secondary Plan, Rita Jabbour, Manager of Planning, explained.

  It will be application-based.

  “We have put a call out to members of the community who are interested in submitting an application,” Jabbour said. “We are really looking for a diverse-range of people.”

  That could include residents, youths, newcomers to the Colchester area, and business owners.

  The idea is to have those selected to be part of the focus group bounce around ideas for the Colchester Secondary Plan.

  Last fall, a majority of Essex Council voted to tap the brakes on the draft Official Plan (OP) – an overarching document that sets out land-use and development policies for the next 25-years – giving town Administration direction to complete a second phase to the project prior to its adoption. That included completing a Local Comprehensive Review (LCR).

  Administration and Council will use the information gained from the LCR to determine the opportunities and constraints associated with Town of Essex land use designations, particularly Primary and Secondary Settlement Areas, and the appropriateness of the current settlement areas to accommodate the forthcoming growth, it was noted last year.

  The Colchester Secondary Plan is a component of the Town of Essex’s OP.

  The need for a Colchester Secondary Plan stems from its importance as the Municipality’s only waterfront community. It also connects the growing wine industry along County Road 50, where the Town has invested in cycle infrastructure, Jabbour explained.

  “It really is a centre hub that connects people who are visiting the wineries, engage with wineries, and also like to fish, and might like the beach,” Jabbour said. “It is a potential economic driver for the Town of Essex.”

  Because of those factors, it needs a little more direction.

  Factors to consider is keeping the community character of Colchester, and also trying to balance that with more tourism opportunities and accommodations for the wine industry.

  “It is a balancing act,” Jabbour said.    

  Jabbour said Town officials heard a lot of feedback from residents at an open house last year that more work had to be done on the Colchester Secondary Plan. The Town is taking in all the comments it received to date on the matter, coming up with a new plan, and conducting more public consultation as part of phase two on this and the OP project.  

  She believes there will be one focus group meeting, likely in the fall. Following that, the Town will reevaluate whether it needs to reconvene the focus group.

  In terms of presenting a final draft of the Colchester Secondary Plan for Council to consider, Jabbour noted that will not happen until 2026, possibly in the summer.

  Between now and then, she said there will be more open houses and public meetings.

  Gathering the public opinion is important, because the OP is meant for the residents and business owners of the Town.

  “It’s their plan,” she said. “Public input is paramount because it is long-range. It really affects people’s livelihoods; how their town is going to grow, what opportunities they are going to offer, what opportunities this is going to offer residents when they are thinking about moving here, or retiring here, or maybe even starting a family here.”

  Looking 25-years into the future in formulating the document helps provide a glimpse of what the future could look like, Jabbour added.

  This is a plan that could also help the Town of Essex get grants from upper-tiers of government as they become available in the future. Jabbour said the OP details the goals of the municipality and its Council.

  The last day to apply to the focus group is September 12. Those interested can find more information at  www.essex.ca/en/news/colchester-secondary-plan-focus-group.asp