By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Northumberland County Director of Planning, Development and Strategic Initiatives Dwayne Campbell says Northumberland County should benefit in the near term from what he called a golden triangle.
At Monday’s meeting of county council’s Economic Development, Tourism, Land Use Planning Committee, Campbell called for an update on the county’s 2021 study in light of recent announcements.
He led off with last year’s announcement of a the Wesleyville OPG development to the west.
“We also had the announcement about a possible Campbellford Memorial Hospital rebuild in the north,” he added.
“More recently, Councillor Ostrander and I had the opportunity to attend the Trenton Air Force Base with a contingent of Brighton planners, staff and our workforce-housing corporation to talk about housing opportunities – not only in Brighton but eastern Northumberland – that would be able to help some of the outgoing military staff from the base.”
So, he summed up – Wesleyville to the west, Campbellford to the north and potential housing opportunities to the east.
“You start to build this triangle across Northumberland. I call it the golden triangle.
“In the centre is Cobourg, Colborne, larger centres with opportunities for growth and development. We see intensification, high-rise development opportunities and apartment-style buildings in some of our rural areas.
“Northumberland is changing. It continues to change, and it has even changed since 2021. I think now is a good time, an opportunity to really look at those population-and-employment forecasts, given the new opportunities and significant development that is coming our way to ensure our land supplies are appropriate and can still accommodate not only the employment but the housing and related growth that comes with those developments.”
Given the five years since the last study, Campbell added, Northumberland might even have been looking at an update regardless. But it was November’s presentation at county council by the group behind the Wesleyville project that spurred him to make the move.
The $140,000 cost of a consultant for the exercise is not budgeted, and would come out of general reserves.
As in the last study, the consultants will work with all Northumberland municipalities to capture all existing evidence and opportunities.
Committee member Brian Ostrander said, in his experience, such forecasts typically fall short in their projections by about 15%, and asked if there was some way to ensure that would not be the case with this new study.
Campbell reminded him that the 2021 study had a couple of different scenarios, including one that anticipated the kind of growth that could result if an Amazon or a Google came to the area. He pledged “in this update to come up with a scenario that makes sense for Northumberland.”
The committee will recommend to county council that the project be undertaken and the funds transferred as outlined.
