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UPDATE: Stage 4 Reaches Milestone!

May 17th, 2012

The Planning Review Advisory Committee (PRAC) met for the 18th time this week. This particular meeting was a major milestone for the group and Stage 4 of the Planning Review process.

Over the past nine months the PRAC and planning staff discussed ways of achieving 12 of the Planning Review's 15 objectives. During this time the group has covered the Review's major topics, which include residential and commercial land uses, community design, downtown revitalization, heritage protection, and transportation. The final three objectives will be reviewed internally by Town staff.

The PRAC will halt their monthly meetings for the summer months. In the meantime, planning staff will continue to work through Stage 4. Staff will continue to review and analyze the Town's existing land use policies and practices; they will also convert the committee's discussions into draft policies, which will form the basis of Bridgewater's new planning documents.

The PRAC will reconvene on September 13th with a revised meeting format. At this time they will critique and refine the draft policies. Once the committee is satisfied with the content of these policies, the Planning Department will host a public consultation event to collect community feedback and recommendations. This event is tentatively scheduled for November.

January 5th, 2012

For the past five months, the Planning Review Advisory Committee (PRAC) and the Planning Department have been in the midst of Stage 4, the Policy & Regulation Review. In this stage of the Review, each PRAC meeting is dedicated to a specific objective(s). The PRAC reviews the Town's policies and practices surrounding the appropriate topic before suggesting potential revisions, and ways that our 15 objectives can be achieved through policy.

To date, the PRAC has covered many of the Review's major topics, including the environment, parks & open space, commercial land uses, industrial land uses, housing, and mixed use development. Currently, the PRAC is on a one month hiatus so that Planning Staff are able to turn the PRAC's conversations into preliminary draft policies and content for the new Municipal Planning Strategy. The PRAC will reconvene as usual starting on February 9th at 7:00am in the Town Hall's Council Chambers. Both the February and March meetings will focus on waterfront revitalization and improving public access to the LaHave River.

Before the conclusion of Stage 4, the PRAC will also review topics relating to the historic downtown, heritage, active transportation, and the road network. Please stay tuned for future consultation opportunities in the coming year!

 October 11th, 2011

The Planning Review recently passed the one year mark of the 30 month long process. To celebrate the occasion, planning staff produced a newsletter which provides a recap of the progress made thus far, in addition to an overview of the Review's longest stage, Stage 4 - Policy & Regulation Review. Please select the image to the left to view the newsletter.

The PRAC has already started exploring ways to achieve the 15 objective statements in the new planning documents. Please stay tuned for future updates on Stage 4 and opportunities to participate in the Review!

August 15th, 2011

On August 15th, Bridgewater Town Council approved the Planning Review's Vision & Objective Statements, officially ending Stage 3 of the Review. After carefully reviewing all public input the PRAC opted to make only minor adjustments to the draft Statements, which were originally presented to the community on June 29th. For a copy of the Vision & Objectives, please select the image to the left.

June 29th, 2011

Town staff hosted the Planning Review's second public consultation event - the Vision & Objective Statements Open House - on June 29th at the Days Inn. The event was a huge success, as over 50 community members provided feedback on our draft Statements! In total, we received over 240 comments, the majority of which were very positive. We would like to thank everyone who attended the Open House and/or completed our Vision & Objectives Survey!

Click here for pictures of the event!

April 7th, 2011

On Thursday March 31st, the Planning Review's first public consultation event was held at the Days Inn. The Neighbourhood Workshop was a great success - the event was well attended and we received a lot of useful feedback from the community. Click here for more information on the event.

We would like to thank everyone who helped make our first event a success. We hope to see everyone at future consultation events.

February 28th, 2011

Bridgewater's Planning Review reached its second major milestone on Monday, February 28, 2011, when Town Council approved the recommendation from the Planning Department and the Planning Review Advisory Committee (PRAC) to adopt Smart Growth Principles as the guiding principles (Stage 2) for the Planning Review process. You can view the Smart Growth Principles staff report by selecting the image to the left. The Planning Review has now entered Stage 3 - Vision Statement & Objectives.

January 19th, 2011

The Planning Department recently finished Stage 1 of the Planning Review process - the Community Inventory Report (CIR). The CIR was circulated to the Planning Review Advisory Committee and Town Council during the week of January 10th, 2011. Members of the public can access the report by selecting the CIR logo.