Over the next few months, Essa Township residents will have multiple opportunities to share their ideas on growth and development with municipal leaders.
The township launched its official plan (OP) review this week and it calls for as much public input as possible.
“The (OP) is expected to be finalized internally by December 2025, with key reporting roughly every six months throughout the process,” said Sam Haniff, manager of planning for Essa.
“While dates are still being finalized, we plan on having three community surveys, several open houses, a public information centre and a public meeting before adoption and request for approval by Simcoe County," Haniff added.
He said the township wants as much public input into its updated OP as it can get, "so that we capture the diverse needs and perspectives of our rapidly growing population."
The tentative schedule calls for the first community survey and open houses to be done this summer. A second community survey is set for December.
The public information centre and a third community survey are planned for June 2025, with a public open house and public meeting set for September 2025.
According to the kick-off presentation made by SGL Planning and Design and Dillon Consulting at a recent township council meeting, Essa's population is expected to grow to 35,000 by 2051, an increase of almost 11,000 people.
That growth will have a tremendous impact on the township, from infrastructure to transportation.
The OP review will identify outdated policies and objectives in order to help bring the document into conformity with modern provincial policies and community interests.
“The township’s (OP) is long overdue for an update,” Haniff said. “For a variety of reasons, we have had starts and stops over the years, so we are anxious to get our update completed.
“This update is important to capture all the land-use, population, employment and legislative changes that have occurred since our (OP) was put into effect in 2001,” he added.
The township began the public engagement portion of the review four years ago when it held "visioning workshops" in September and October 2020.
Following those sessions, the township hosted an in-person and virtual meeting to review the themes of the responses and to provide participants with another opportunity to provide comments.
From there, residents identified and ranked a wide assortment of issues, from the things they valued most about the community to the major planning issues facing the township over the next 20 years.
“An (OP) update relies heavily on input from residents,” Haniff said. “The needs and concerns of our residents play as important a role in this process as our technical planning expertise.”
Essa's new OP will address the following planning and policy areas:
- achieving sustainable development
- delivering a sufficient supply of homes
- building a strong and competitive local economy
- ensuring the vitality of settlement areas and promoting healthy and safe communities
- promoting sustainable transport
- supporting high-quality communications
- making effective use of land
- achieving well-designed places
- conserving and enhancing the natural environment
- conserving and enhancing the historic environment
- meeting the challenge of climate change.
Essa residents are encouraged to participate in the process and are invited to send suggestions, ideas and concerns to [email protected].
