West Grey Council (Photo from West Grey Council YouTube)
West Grey council is appointing Mayor Kevin Eccles and Coun. Doug Hutchinson to take part in future discussions with the Town of Hanover on potential growth.
During a special meeting on March 28, council received a presentation from Owner of Erebus Municipal Services Inc. Murray Clarke. Erebus was engaged by Grey County to help facilitate discussions with West Grey and Hanover.
The presentation touched on growth scenarios for both municipalities, opportunities and positive impacts strategic growth can bring, and creating a path forward.
The presentation from Clarke says municipalities are required to plan for their population and employment growth for up to 25 years, with upper-tier municipalities, like Grey County, needing to identify and allocate population, housing and employment growth.
By 2046, the presentation says West Grey is expected to grow by 1,750 people, 840 households, and 680 jobs, with most of this growth expected in Durham and Neustadt. Compared to Hanover, the town is expected to grow by 3,420 people, 1,700 households, and 1,470 jobs.
“In the past 13 years, Hanover has completed and refined growth studies. These studies indicate that Hanover does not have enough land to meet their growth needs over the next 20+ years,” says the presentation. “To facilitate long-term growth of lands adjacent to Hanover, West Grey and Hanover have previously worked together with the county to investigate growth opportunities on lands in West Grey adjacent to Hanover.”
Considering similar examples of partnering on growth, both municipalities create joint prosperity agreements, sharing services, and make one-time payments to property owners. The presentation says options to achieve mutual prosperity should be considered and each municipality needs to benefit from whatever options are considered.
Clark plans to make the same presentation to Hanover council to receive input next week. Should both councils agree, both municipalities would continue to work collaboratively to assess opportunities for each community, and Eccles and Hutchinson will be taking part in those future discussions.
“I think it is a good opportunity for regional economic development, certainly if that is what they are looking at,” says Eccles.
Eccles adds he foresees by working with Hanover, it would benefit the development of the community as a whole.
“We are going to continue to be a progressive municipality and explore all those options on being able to supply job opportunities and be able to put forward the services that are going to be required by our growing population here in Grey and Bruce County,” says Eccles.