Development & Growth – Page 5

Strat Plan Part 3: The Waterfront

The waterfront. It defines us geographically, historically and culturally. What could be more important to Collingwood than its waterfront that covers the entire northern border of this sleepy, lakeside town? Well, pretty much anything else it seems, if you you’re on Collingwood Council. Pick the most irrelevant, pointless, self-aggrandizing effort – like rewriting the Code of Conduct or flying around the country to party at taxpayers’ expense – and this council will eagerly pounce on it as a priority rather than deal with waterfront issues. Council is determined to hold up growth and development on this all-important area until sometime ……… click below for more ↓

Strat Plan Part 2: The Shuffle Game

2015-08-02 2015-08-02 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

In the second part of my critique of Collingwood’s woo-hoo strategic plan, I will look at the shuffle game. This is where consultants give contestants – I mean participants – a limited series of options and ask them to shuffle these around in order of their perceived priority. Then the results are collated and the one whose list looks most like the final version wins. There are five separate lists given to contestants. Think of them as strategic plan bingo cards: Accountable Local Government Public Access to a Revitalized Waterfront Economic Vitality Healthy Lifestyle Culture and the Arts Participants get ……… click below for more ↓

Strategic Planning, Part One: The Woo-Hoo Factor

2015-08-01 2015-08-01 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & Policies8 Comments

There are, in general, two kinds of municipal strategic plans. One is pragmatic and practical. It tells you what you need to build, fix or replace, when you need to do it, how much it will cost, and where the money will come from. This is the stuff a council grounded in reality can use to budget, plan sensibly, and maintain the community’s infrastructure. It’s a roadmap that leads to a well-defined destination. The other kind of plan is best described by the term woo-hoo. It’s an airy, feel-good exercise that spews forth happy catch phrases, the more nebulous the better. ……… click below for more ↓

Reincarnation as a Consultant or a Psychic?

2015-07-16 2015-07-16 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

A wag met Nasrudin. In his pocket he had an egg. “Tell me, Mullah, are you any good at guessing games?” “Not bad,” said Nasrudin. “Very well then: tell me what I have in my pocket.” “Give me a clue, then.” “It is shaped like an egg, it is yellow and white inside, and it looks like an egg.” “Some sort of cake,” said Nasrudin.* Should I have the chance to do my life all over again, I’m not sure which career I would prefer most: a psychic or a consultant. One takes money from people because he is ……… click below for more ↓

The Antis at Sunset Point

2015-07-13 2015-07-13 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Food & Drink / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

There are always those who don’t want change. Any change upsets them. Anything that’s new, different, exciting, challenging or just unusual bothers them and want it stopped. They want a steady state, where nothing happens, nothing changes, nothing is new. Stop growth, stop development, stop change. Some of them are the ‘last in’ crowd – the recent arrivals who don’t want any more newcomers because newcomers will change things, and they will change the reasons the ‘last-in’ group came here. They want to be the last ones to arrive and to shut the door after themselves. They want things to ……… click below for more ↓

It’s Official: Collingwood is Closed for Business

2015-07-01 2015-07-01 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Taxes2 Comments

As I predicted, Collingwood Council officially closed the town to business, growth and development, last Monday night. And just for good measure, council sprinkled the ground with the salt of malice, just to further deter a particular developer from building here. Which sends a message to everyone about how this town respects and values development. Anyone who doesn’t think this is about ideology or doesn’t know this is a personal and petty vendetta hasn’t been paying attention to local politics this past decade. The process of closing our municipal doors to business started earlier this year when council raised our taxes and our ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood Turns a Blind Eye to Hydro One Sale

2015-06-22 2015-06-22 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

It would seem that much of Ontario, and many of its stronger municipal councils, are voicing opposition to the province’s ill-advised plan to sell Hydro One to a private, for-profit group, and are writing to the premier to protest.* The popular sentiment is that selling an essential utility like hydro – that brings the province almost $340 million annually – makes about as much sense as throwing your paycheque out the car window while giving the car keys to a total stranger. It will only make us less competitive and less attractive to business and industry. It will hurt small ……… click below for more ↓

Connection Got It Wrong

2015-06-21 2015-06-21 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

The story in this weekend’s Connection about Block 9 underground parking incorrectly suggests council is doing something right when it was actually trying to do something wrong. But they tried to take credit for doing good when their efforts at malice failed. I expect mistakes like this from the Enterprise-Bulletin because it doesn’t have anyone on staff with a history that goes back very far (aside, that is, from the generally bad, mistake-prone writing that makes it painful to read…), but not the Connection. The story notes: After a short in-camera session, council voted unanimously to allow the developer to build underground ……… click below for more ↓

Block Nine Revisited

2015-06-17 2015-06-17 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies5 Comments

I went down to the harbour today to take a couple of photographs of the piece of town land known as “Block 9.” I wanted to show my readers just how little a piece it is and what condition it’s in now. The aerial photo above shows the property outlined in orange (the photograph is several years out of date, but the property lines remain the same). The photograph below shows the land from the northwest corner, looking southeast. Notice the water that has collected because the land lies much lower than surrounding properties and has no drainage (no, it isn’t ……… click below for more ↓

Creating a New Citizens’ Group

2015-06-10 2015-06-10 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

Recently, I’ve been told that what this town needs is a new citizen’s action group. I imagine it will be a group of residents concerned that the precedents set by the last council might spread to this one. That’s clearly a worrisome trend to some folks. Like progress, good ideas must be nipped in the bud. What this town needs, it seems, is a group of citizens who will eagerly file OMB challenges to stop any chance at growth, development, prosperity and jobs before they become endemic. Citizens who will fight to retain our brownfields, to ensure we have store closings, half-finished developments and the slow withering away of the ……… click below for more ↓

Sit on Your Hands

2015-06-07 2015-06-07 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies2 Comments

Sit on your hands and don’t do anything. That’s in essence the advice in the editorial of the Enterprise-Bulletin, June 3. It’s a strongly anti-business message: telling the business community, the municipality, developers, and everyone around us that Collingwood is, once again, closed for business. Which coincides with the anti-business attitude of several members of the current council, but is hardly good for the community’s economic health. The editorial concludes: By all means, let the waterfront plan and the strategic plan pursue their course and hold off any decision’s (sic) on Assaff’s Block 9 ask until after that time…* Hold off developing ……… click below for more ↓

Waterfront No-Brainer

2015-06-04 2015-06-04 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour2 Comments

Two terms ago, the public and media often referred to council as “the gong show” – no doubt from the number of inane comments and witless questions made at the table. One wonders if that nickname should not be revisited for this term. This week’s gong for inanity goes to Deputy Mayor Brian Saunderson for his comments after a public presentation by a local developer about purchasing an unused bit of town land. Saunderson clearly hasn’t grasped the procedure by which council members should not comment on or to delegations, and only ask questions of clarification. But why should he ……… click below for more ↓

Killing Our Culture

2015-06-04 2015-06-04 Collingwood / Council / Culture / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

Collingwood has killed Jazz & Blues at the Station – a popular, long-running, local cultural event second in audience only to the Elvis Festival. It brought some of Ontario’s top jazz and blues talent to play at the Museum. The hundreds of people assembled every Wednesday for the free concert – sometimes more than 400 in a single night, many of them coming from Blue Mountain, Clearview and Wasaga Beach – will be disappointed. As are the organizers, who have been trying unsuccessfully since late last year to get the town to commit to promised funding. All those people who came downtown ……… click below for more ↓

Good News for the Rec Facilities

2015-06-03 2015-06-03 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & Policies / User fees and costsLeave a comment

A story in this week’s Collingwood Connection vindicates the decision to build the two new rec facilities last term. According to the story, usage of the two facilities – the new arena at Central Park and the renovated Centennial Pool – is soaring. Plus as an added benefit, Centennial pool is able to host competitions all year round – and it does. Just drive by it on a swim meet weekend and you’ll see the parking lot full; dozens of families attend, many of them staying here for shopping, food or even overnight. It’s a great economic benefit, not merely ……… click below for more ↓

Signs – of the Apocalypse?

2015-05-15 2015-05-18 Collingwood / Council / Critical Thinking / Development & Growth / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

Councillor Cam Ecclestone made a comment at council earlier this month that he had been contacted by several residents concerned about the new sign on the Rexall Drug store on Huron Street, its size and colours. Coun. Doherty chimed in about it with similar comments. Aside from the question why anyone would contact a member of council whose sluggish performance at the table would win an award for best impersonation of a somnambulist, one has to wonder who these residents are who are so concerned about a rather ordinary corporate/franchise sign. Well, I mean aside from the handful of petty ideologues ……… click below for more ↓