This Monday, January 31st, the municipality of Callander is hosting an open house to get input on their official plan.
The meeting takes place at the Callander Community Centre, and begins at 6:00 p.m. This is the second open house meeting regarding the official plan, a document that helps guide the municipality for the next four to five years.
For those not comfortable with going to the Community Centre, your voice can still be heard. Simply contact Taylor Craig, the planning administrator at [email protected] and he will provide information as to how you can comment virtually during the live stream of the meeting which will be available via Callander’s YouTube channel.
You may also offer comments to Craig via his e-mail but be sure to contact him before 4:00 p.m. on January 31st so he can include your input at that meeting.
The open house is of the utmost importance to Mayor Robb Noon, and he encourages residents to attend and share their opinions.
“We want to build the town in the image that they want,” he said, “so it’s important they get involved at the ground stage.”
Indeed, all voices are welcome, as the municipality wants to know what concerns you, and will take those insights into consideration when drafting their plan.
The town “takes that advice and uses it to create by-laws and policies to help make that image a reality.”
See: Callander contemplates parks and recreation master plan
And it’s not just the big-ticket items up for discussion, as most agree they crave safe streets, lower taxes, and better services, but the opportunity here is to focus on the smaller details as well, the little things that result in big increases to comfort, stability and quality of life.
For example, if gardening is your jam, push for greater focus on community gardens. Develop industrial land, place more trash bins by the lake, emphasize local arts, or add more Tolstoy to library shelves, all are fair game, and the municipality wants to know your mind.
Mayor Noon mentioned similar meetings took place during the downtown and waterfront revitalization talks, and the input gathered was invaluable, helping everyone to get on the same page.
“I want to know as a mayor what the people want,” Mayor Noon said, “just because I might want something doesn’t mean that everyone else does.”
His goal it to create the town “the way the community wants it,” and the plan will allow for that. “This is the ground floor,” he added, “the foundation that everything is built from.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
