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In anticipation of the population of Hanover growing within the next 20 years, surrounding municipalities have been approached for discussion to help accommodate the town’s land needs, including West Grey.
In 2019, Watson & Associates completed their first phase of a comprehensive review and anticipates the population in Hanover to grow from 8,000 to 10,400 by 2041. The town is growing much faster than anticipated. Grey County GMS now projects a population of 12,200 for Hanover by 2046.
To accommodate this growth, 85 hectares of additional development land was identified.
Then in 2020, following the work conducted by Watson & Associates, it was determined that about 87 hectares of additional land is required.
In a recent report by Fourneir Consulting Services, some options of expanding Hanover’s land were presented, these included:
-annexation of the area to the east of Hanover into West Grey, areas like Magwood
-amalgamation of Hanover and the Municipality of West Grey, should West Grey agree
-amalgamation of Hanover and the Municipality of Brockton
-annexation of the area to the Northwest and Southwest into Brockton
Fourneir Consulting Services emphasized in their report that doing nothing would not be acceptable as, “Over 20 years the Town has invested significant time, effort and resources to address its long-term planning needs and must continue with these efforts.”
The town has been actively engaging in long-term planning and restructuring for 45 years, with three previous annexations between 1976-2000.
The report noted inter-municipal arrangements and development agreements as either a stand alone approach or a restructuring agreement remains on the table for discussion.
West Grey Mayor Christine Robinson says that as a council, they are cooperating with Hanover in exploring how to manage their growth, “we appointed two of our members to help out and attend meetings.”
While still in the early stages of the growth conversation, Robinson says they are only looking at data currently, with more conversations to be held in the future.
Town of Hanover CAO Brian Tocheri says this process has been going on for about 10 years, “we have really spent a lot of energy in the last two years particularly defining what the issue is and through numerous studies, analysis, consulting reports, it is pretty clear that Hanover is going to run out of developable lands within the next planning period, which the province now sets as 25 years.”
Tocheri notes the most logical direction for Hanover to grow into is to the more north and east direction, and there are considerations of growing to the west, towards Brockton, “we are doing some preliminary servicing and engineering work to determine if this is feasible, we have had conversations with Brockton as well as West Grey where we have indicated that these are options, and if we determine that is the best option, in terms of win-win, because this cannot be just all about Hanover, it has to be what also benefits West Grey and Brockton.”
When asked about how Hanover aims to make sure it is a “win-win,” Tocheri says he is not sure as of yet, “I am not sure what makes sense to the other municipalities.”
Tocheri says the next steps with the process is to continue conversations with their neighbours.
Discussion is needed to better understand what the surrounding municipalities needs are and to allow them to understand Hanover’s issues, as well as work towards mutually beneficial agreements, “we need to determine our preferred option and we will be doing that in short course.”
