PARRY SOUND – The town’s Waterfront Advisory Committee is working hard to make Parry Sound’s waterfront plans come to fruition.
Last week council approved the committee’s operating procedures and policy to ensure their efforts are focused and in-line with council’s Strategic Plan.
“The committee just felt that there was a need to establish more functional guidelines as they roll out and implement the master plan,” said Lynn Middaugh, town director of economic development and leisure services. “The committee’s very diversified, there’s lots of experience on the committee from a lot of different areas, so we’re very thankful for that. In the master plan they’ve identified 10 guiding principles and they’ve been asked to come and give us some examples of where similar guiding principles have been implemented in other communities. This will very much be a learning exercise.”
Coun. Dave Williams asked when council and the public could expect “a roll out of the steps towards task completed” from the committee.
Middaugh said the group has met three times and, as of yet, the tasks have not been identified.
“The waterfront, as anyone in the room will know, is very complex, very complicated have not assigned timeliness, we have an on-going task tracker that is about three pages in length already.
“It includes inviting people from the Ministry of the Environment, Municipal Affairs and Housing - there’s a lot of knowledge base that has to be shared with the members before we can really get to implementing,” Middaugh said. “It’s very strategic in nature, so I feel like I can’t really answer your question in terms of the when, but I certainly have faith in the committee, and I’m sure council can as well, that there’s a lot of expertise around the table. It’s very methodical in nature.”
Middaugh said council will be kept up to date on the committee through minutes following its meetings.
Coun. Paul Borneman said the project is likely to be ongoing for many years to come.
“We have a very, very small budget for this committee this year and the community actually owns very little of the property that we’re talking about,” said Borneman. “Public buy-in and communication are going to be key to this and we’re sort of at the mercy of others as to discussion. As to what determines what’s task complete, the waterfront development in Toronto (is) projected to be a 35 to 40 year process so I think that this kind of thing in a waterfront community like ours is an ongoing venture and it’s not a one-development thing on one piece of property, it’s an ongoing venture that will continue to be of interest in this and proceeding councils for years to come, I expect.”