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Orangeville approves new Community Improvement Plan

July 21, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

The adoption of a new Community Improvement Plan (CIP), with a small amendment, was unanimously approved by Orangeville Council last Monday (July 11).

A CIP is a tool for municipalities to provide incentive programs such as grants, loans, and fee relief, to stimulate private sector investments that support revitalization within the town.

Town staff will be coming back to council with a report in the first quarter of 2023, with recommendations around the appropriate programs to be funded under the CIP and its implementation.

Staff will also assess how much in additional funding is needed to administer the CIP in 2023 and bring it forward during budget deliberations for next year.

Coun. Grant Peters asked if the approval of the CIP could be delayed until council’s next meeting, so councillors have more time to review and amend some the design guidelines within it.

“There’s certainly a few cases, from my perspective, where a little stronger language, making those requirements a little bit more robust, would really elevate the types of projects that we would see, and the elements that contribute to various factors in town in terms of accessibility or sustainability,” he noted.

“I’d hate to just only have a few days to review that document… I don’t want to delay the process, but I think it’s worth a second look at that section, and really diving into some of the details to see if we can improve upon them if this is going to be a standard that now governs all the projects, we’re going to see over the next five or 10 years.”

Mayor Sandy Brown said he’d also like to have a bit more time with the document since council only had it for four days prior to the July 11 meeting.

Orangeville’s general manager of community services and interim CAO, Ray Osmond said the CIP is a living document, meaning council always has the opportunity to amend the plan as needed.

When asked by Coun. Peters if pushing the CIP’s approval to council’s August 8 meeting would cause any hiccups, Osmond responded that he’d prefer that the CIP be approved at the July 11 meeting, with the design guideline portion deferred.

Coun. Peter made the motion to approve the CIP and defer the design guideline portion of the CIP to council’s next meeting, slated for August 8.

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