From the Town of Huntsville:
The Town of Huntsville is developing a new Strategic Plan to outline the long-term vision and short-term goals for the municipality. From July 28 to August 25, 2023, the Town is seeking public input through to gather feedback on Huntsville’s top priorities. Once finalized, the Strategic Plan will guide Council, shape plans, and impact budget planning for years to come.
To help raise awareness for the survey and the Strategic Plan, the Town of Huntsville will be out in the community over the August long weekend. Residents can learn more and provide additional input by visiting one of the three pop-ups:
Shoppers Drug Mart Pop-Up
Saturday, August 5, 2023
Shoppers Drug Mart in Huntsville – 10 am to 1 pm
Movie on the Docks Pop-Up
Saturday, August 5, 2023
Town Dock Park – 5 to 7 pm
Annual Rubber Duck Race Pop-Up
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Port Sydney Dam – 12 to 2 pm
Residents are encouraged to share the survey with their friends, family, and coworkers. The greater the public input, the better the plan is able to reflect the needs of the community.
“We know Huntsville is a diverse community and what matters most differs from person to person. That’s why it’s so important that residents take the time to complete the community survey,” says Reva Frame, Director of Corporate and Community Strategy. “We want our Strategic Plan to represent all of Huntsville; tell us what matters most to you. We are listening.”
Public consultation will be ongoing throughout the process of developing the new Strategic Plan.
Strategic Plan Project Timeline
- Community Engagement on Priorities
- From July 28 to August 25, 2023, the Town of Huntsville is gathering priorities for the new Strategic Plan through a community survey and pop-up events.
- Development of the Draft of the Strategic Plan
- Town staff reviews public input from the community survey to select priorities and develop a draft of the new Strategic Plan.
- Community Consultation on Draft of the Strategic Plan
- Community is re-engaged to provide feedback on the draft of the Town of Huntsville’s new Strategic Plan.
- Strategic Plan Finalized and Released
- Incorporating the final round of public feedback, the Town of Huntsville finalizes the new Strategic Plan and shares it with the community.
Residents can register for project updates on . Hard copies of the survey will also be available at Town Hall, the Canada Summit Centre, the Huntsville Public Library and at the community pop-up events. The community survey closes on August 25.
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Both good points made in the prior comments and applicable to most municipal government to some degree.
There are some concerns about the validity of things like “pop up” surveys.
I would imagine that these surveys seem necessary because most likely there has not been a huge response to the plan review and to try to make any changes more valid staff are looking to find more input. While this is good, you have to wonder about the demographic that will actually attend these meetings. The business owners and operators, the ones who shape what actually happens and maintain what has already been built, well they are unlikely to show up at events where these pop ups have been chosen to locate.
Somehow planning needs to have input from all segments of the population and this is a huge problem for planning staff to overcome as those who do the most work in the community are usually not available to attend meetings… quite simply they are working and need to be doing this to run their business.
Also, and I hate to bring this up but it does need consideration, there are essential differences between “full time residents”, those who live here year round and “work” here for their living and those who visit briefly on holiday at their well curated time of year. These two groups do not always want the same things in a plan. Similarly the group of us who have chosen to “retire” here probably have their own special ideas of what constitutes a “good” plan for the future of the area. These groups all need to be considered which I’m sure the planning staff already know but it is a challenge to come up with any plan that satisfies all.
As noted in the prior comments, there always seems to be a way for people to flout planning goals. With the municipal “tribunal” now decreased to “one person” this is an even easier thing to have happen.
Then there is the business of actually following the plan in any way shape or form. I’m not in Huntsville but in Lake of Bays, probably typical, any request about something relating to planning issues seems to fall into a black hole with no timely answer ever appearing. I know, I have asked about a particular location, just out of curiosity if it is compliant to the plan for over two years now and have yet to get any answer back other than that “they are investigating”. Trump would love this place!
Unless the planning is simple enough to be understood by the citizens and then applied fairly and transparently so it can be seen to actually be accomplishing something you might as well just ignore it like many landowners seem to do now anyway.
At the end of the day one has to wonder if all the hype and high priced planning help we have here actually accomplishes anything at all.
As one example, consider the flood that washed through A&W a few years back. Where did it come from? Well, up the hill toward Home Depot of course, and what is happening up there now? Well take a look at the vast rock field being blasted out for new stores and such and you get an idea.
Now I know planners and civil engineers will be putting in retention devices to try to mitigate the sudden vast floods of water from the future buildings and paved areas but these will be designed using guidelines established over the last 100 years. Some of these facilities are mere minimal lip service to the plan if one exists at all and even good mitigation schemes need maintenance regularly. If you look around at prior systems you have to note that maintenance is not high on someones list. They don’t even fix the fence around some of these things let alone clean them out and make sure they can work properly.
Add to this the fact that due to global climate changes our storms seem to be more violent now than in the past and this has yet to be reflected in those poor engineer’s guidelines and you have a recipe for another A&W flood in the future and this is just one place that comes to mind first for me. There must be many others that readers can think of if they look around their area a bit.
So while pop up sessions may help they need to be moderated based on some of these concerns and much more data accumulated before significant changes are made to any plans.
The strategic plan should include having funding in place BEFORE any new project goes ahead. Obviously.
Ignore wildly inaccurate guesstimates about funding from staff leading to multi-million dollar financial disasters as at Bracebridge and the District.
Huntsville also has made some disastrous financial decisions but not at such a massive scale, yet.
https://southmuskoka.doppleronline.ca/new-arena-on-target-for-august-2024-opening/
How about planning to get spending under control and follow a budget?
There’s a strategic plan.
“Council has already allowed the expenditure of at least a million dollars more than they approved in 2023. In my view, this makes a mockery of the budget process.”
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/huntsville-council/
Why bother with a strategic plan when developers can just go to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal?