BACKGROUND AND SETTLEMENT AREAS

Most of the Town’s residents live in one of its Settlement Areas. Essex Centre and Harrow are the Town’s Primary Settlement Areas, and are the main focus of future growth and investment with concentrations of commercial, industrial recreational, community, cultural, and entertainment uses. Also, the infrastructure to support Primary Settlement areas is more elaborate, extensive and costly.

The communities of McGregor, Gesto and Colchester along with certain residential development on the north shore of Lake Erie are the Town’s Secondary Settlement Areas. Secondary Settlement areas generally are smaller, simpler and lack many of the ‘benefits’ of larger Primary Settlement Areas. The Secondary Settlement Areas are intended for minimal growth.

Note that there are no specific requirements in The County or Town of Essex Official Plans to ensure that any unique or established community characteristics are maintained, particularly in Secondary Settlement Areas. The only allowance in the Town plan is that Colchester is to maintain it’s ‘Small Town Feel’. No specific details are included to determine what that very subjective term really describes.

In general, Secondary Settlement areas have limited protection from excessive development as we have experienced to date. The Official Plans are written to allow planners to have a wide series of choices when developers come calling.

OUR CONCERN WITH THE ORIGINAL PROPOSED 2024 COLCHESTER PLAN

The Town of Essex 2024 draft Official Plan includes Chapter Nine with its vision for Colchester was originally scheduled for approval by Council in late 2024. At that point it would have become become the Town’s governing document for land use and unlikely to be able to be changed. That said, due to unrelenting pressure from Colchester residents, on October 21, ‘24, at the Town’s Council meeting, the Mayor’s Notice of Motion regarding the Official Plan was passed 7 to 1. The NOM was discussed at length and a presentation by a Colchester Matters delegation and hundreds of emails to the Planning department were directly responsible for causing the proposed Official Plan approval to be delayed until certain studies are completed and more information gathered.

Along with the delay for further review, the motion from Mayor Bondy for a Local Comprehensive Review (LCR) has passed. This LCR is to be completed for the entire town prior to the completion of the new Official Plan. This review is primarily a land use study to determine the location and viability of every agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial lot in the Town of Essex. This is a very detailed review to allow the Town to get a clear picture of potential land use and determine how best to roll out future growth patterns within our Town.

Residents will still have the ability to make their voices heard with respect to the updated Official Plan and it’s final implementation and potential for change. Council has now voted to postpone the Official Plan, including the CSP (Colchester Secondary Plan). As the draft plan was currently written, there were many points of concern for residents and their voices have now been heard. Provincial guidelines are very specific and indicate that input from the community helps to insure that future planning and development “meets the specific needs of the community”. Therefore, while we may have a year or so before we see an updated version of the Official Plan, we must continue our vigilance and not let our guard down. We cannot assume our efforts are complete lest we lose what we fought so hard for.

We must remain committed to a NEW COLCHESTER SECONDARY PLAN

NOTE: Colchester is the only ward out of four within the Town of Essex with very valuable and unique assets, namely lake frontage, a marina and a beach area. The original plan attempted to exploit those features possibly to the detriment of the residents of Colchester.

Highlights of the Original Plan:

· Promotion of Colchester to be a centre for tourism

· Creation of growth areas, including commercial and retail, directed primarily in the area of Tourism

· Alteration of roads and accesses to better accommodate tourists and visitors

· Improvement of the shore around Colchester Harbour to better accommodate a tourist industry

· To ensure Colchester is “mixed-use” to include recreational opportunities, retail, commercial and mid to high density housing

· The term ‘The Town will encourage Short Term Rentals’ is used despite there currently being a Town moratorium on new STRs.

· Encouragement of hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts

· Supports a variety of uses to include cafes, restaurants, lodging, microbreweries, wineries, distilleries, artisans and crafts

· Improvement and creation of better public access to the lakeshore through provision of new parks & trails, aimed primarily at tourism

· Creation of a Tourism Hub based around the old schoolhouse and historical church, despite this being a residential area

· Re-zoning of residential to commercial in order to accommodate new commercial ventures to promote tourism

· Redevelopment of some properties for more intensive residential use

· Permit more open spaces including amphitheatres, playgrounds and sport facilities

· Building heights, with zoning amendments, may reach 4 stories

· The Town will consider amending it’s Zoning bylaw to pre-zone the properties in the Main Street Area for uses and built form permitted by this Secondary Plan

· Improvement of public amenities, safety zones, beach and marina towards tourism – why not implement now?

· Consider opportunity to improve the water quality of the harbour and beach front area - why not implement now?

· Support improvements to public marina, docking area and harbour to improve access and safety - why not implement now?

· Consider improvements to the Colchester Harbour shoreline to reduce erosion risk – why not implement now?

· Bicycle racks and other bicycle parking facilities – why not implement now?

· Strive to achieve barrier free, safe pedestrian accessibility - why not implement now?

TOWN OF ESSEX

AN EFFECTIVE VOICE

In order for us to ensure that we have an effective voice while the Comprehensive Reviews are being completed, we need to organize and maintain the largest contingent of Colchester Residents possible Our chances of ensuring that the Town Planners pay attention to the concerns of this village grow as the size of our group grows. We need to speak with one reasonable voice and speak often.

COUNTY OF ESSEX

DOWNLOAD DOCUMENTS RE:

THE COLCHESTER OFFICIAL PLAN