Future Caledon updates Council on progression of new workplan timeline

Written By ALYSSA PARKHILL

The Town of Caledon is keeping on track with planning, as the Future Caledon committee isn't letting the uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic get in the way of long-term planning at the municipal level. 

Town Council was held on Tuesday (May 26) to discuss updates on Future Caledon and where they are in their planning. 

Sylvia Kirkwood, Manager of Policy and Sustainability regarding Future Caledon, alongside Marisa Williams, Senior Planner and Acting Manager, presented to council on Tuesday (May 26) on where they are in their workplan timeline towards the future growth of Caledon. 

For the past four months, Future Caledon has been participating in community engagement to get as much information as possible out to the public, and to ensure they hear from them as well. 

Future Caledon was developed back in 2018, with a four-year mandate to come up with something of a road map, or guideline, for the municipality moving forward. Staff is currently collecting the data they need that will help form the future of Caledon in regard to housing, transportation, employment and facilities to name a few. 

“Currently, we're in the data collection phase, which is scheduled to run through (to the end of) 2020. We're working towards getting a number of studies complete and initiated as well, so that we're well in place for our 2020, 2021 policy formulation” said Williams. 

Going into further details of their workplan, in 2019 the team focused on online engagement, satellite offices and pop-ups, community policy review, queen street corridor study, climate change action plan and preservation of rural community. 

For 2020, the focus is on urban design, affordable housing, agri-tourism, aggregate and excess soil policy, and settlement area mapping along with several others. 

“A number of different activities have been underway, increasing our engagement strategy and our online platform, as well as a number of satellite offices, the pop-up shops and the various studies and strategies that we have undertaken and continue to work on for 2019 and into 2020,” explained Williams. 

The Future Caledon official plan was compared to the Region of Peel official plan, to what, if any, similarities there were between the two. They align with the focuses of natural resources and agriculture, climate change, tourism and heritage, transportation and growth management.

“Staff has been commenting and reviewing documents that are being issued to the Region. There are lots of opportunities for us to try and comment on all the various topic areas that they're working on,” said Williams. 

Future Caledon staff members have been going out into the community to engage with residents and answers any questions they have about the plan. 

“We have our Future Caledon website, our online platform, and we've received 916 contacts though the site, as well as our pop-ups in terms of engagement. People came to say hello, or to find out what we're doing were given a brochure and also information about how to relate their concerns and comments through the Future Caledon website,” Williams explained. “We also encouraged people to come to our satellite offices where we had about 217 people come in to have discussions with staff.”

Staff with Future Caledon are continuing collecting data and are working their way into the second phase of policy formulation.

With the community on the edge of their seats while amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it's vital to keep the plan to move forward strong and secure.  The Future Caledon committee are continuing in their workplan timeline to ensure the future of Caledon in all aspects within the Town are on track. 

For more information, please visit future.caledon.ca.