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, recreational, community, cultural, and entertainment uses. 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. The Secondary Settlement Areas are intended for minimal growth to ensure their unique and established community character are maintained

OUR CONCERN WITH THE ORIGINAL PROPOSED 2024 COLCHESTER PLAN

The Town of Essex 2024 draft Official Plan includes Chapter Nine with it’s 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.

The primary purpose of this delay is to allow a Local Comprehensive Review (LCR) to be completed for the entire town. 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 may have the opportunity to postpone, remove, or alter any terms of the Official Plan, including the CSP (Colchester Secondary Plan). As we have stated numerous times before, Council will NOT likely amend the Plan unless they hear from residents with valid concerns. As the draft plan was currently written, there were many points of concern for residents. 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, the time to become interested in what is happening and become informed about how to influence change and get involved, is now.

The time to speak up and be heard is not later this year but NOW.

COLCHESTER SECONDARY PLAN

Long Term Vision, as proposed in the first draft of the 2024 Plan

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?

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

DOWNLOAD DOCUMENTS RE:

PROPOSED COLCHESTER OFFICIAL PLAN