Mayor Malcolm Eaton, along with city councillors and staff were at the Tradeshow on Nov. 7-8 to talk with Humboldt residents about what they want to see for the community.
They are looking to update and make changes to the city’s community plan.
“The official community plan is the big picture look at a community, about the kind of things you want to have in your community,” says Eaton.
What they are looking for is a modern city plan that can relate to Humboldt as a city.
The last set of changes made to the community plan was back in 2007 but a lot of things have changed, says Eaton.
“We’re certainly trying to look ahead with this plan and that’s why we felt it was really important to redo the official community plan.”
Changes that the city are looking to make to the plan follow the Our Humboldt strategic plan the city kicked off in 2013 as well as the engineering studies on the water and sewer systems and work with the RMs surrounding Humboldt.
“It gives us the big picture on how our community is going to grow and the kind of growth that we want to encourage and invite.”
Guidelines, policies and programs that come in have to adhere to this document.
“When someone comes to our community and wants to start certain types of development, we’ve got those rules and guidelines in place.”
The community plan will also help hold developers to account for things they want to bring into the community. One of these regulations that Eaton wants to see brought in is based around community landscaping.
If developers want to come in and create an addition business or industrial space, they have to consider what landscaping will also going to be involved with their development. Green space, sidewalk plans, curbside looks all would have to be considered by the developers coming in.
Some businesses did this is the past, says Eaton, but putting it in with the community plan will ensure that this has to be considered by all developers in the future.
“The city hasn’t had good, strong guidelines that we can provide for people who come to town and want to do development.” Says Eaton.
Alternative housing and mixed use developments have been very well received says Eaton. These plans would allow garden suites and additional apartment space be added onto homes in the city as forms of alternative housing and well used property space.
The city also included a map of future growth that will happen to the south and northwest corner of the city. This plan of city growth is definitely pertaining to the engineering studies that the city are having done and where water and sewer expansion is most economical.
The map also planned out where more commercial and light industrial corridors are and how to plan the city around that.
The map was a good inclusion for the community planning booth, says Eaton. People could see where population growth is going to be and what’s going to be developed in that area.
“This map indicates an area where those kinds of community services like another school or a new church or a new fire hall and things like that, where they are going to be located in the community.”
It’s all part of that long term planning looking 5 to 10 to 20 years ahead, says Eaton, which was a big focus of the community plan.
Eaton wants people to understand that this is about long term planning.
“This isn’t about what’s going to happen next year or next summer or in the new year. This is what’s going to happen in the years ahead.”
