Written By Jan Sims
MIDDLESEX CENTRE – The township has a new policy impacting water and wastewater services. At its May 20th meeting, council voted in favour of a policy intended to clarify how the services are allocated.
“We’ve done a great job of ensuring our infrastructure capacity has stayed ahead of development pressures,” said Stephanie Bergman Manager of Planning & Development. The policy is coming about at this time, following provincial regulations designed to encourage more housing.
“Middlesex Centre has proactively planned for future growth through the Master Servicing Plan and related Class Environmental Assessments, if development should proceed at a pace that exceeds planned infrastructure expansions, it will be necessary to ensure that available servicing capacity is available for projects that are ready to advance,” a report to council states.
A cornerstone of the new policy will be tracking water and wastewater needs. “The policy is being brought forward to ensure we have this transparent and fair process… should the pace of development start to outpace those upgrades, and if we do get into a situation where capacity does start to be a bit constrained,” Bergman told council.
When the proposed policy came up for discussion, concerns were expressed by councillors about how the policy aligns with people adding ARUs or additional residential units to their property. “The discussion of ARUs is probably a little bit tricky because it’s an existing lot that has a right to a unit, and this is where we might want to set aside a certain amount of capacity to allow for an ARU update… I do believe some municipalities are restricting permits on that basis,” acknowledged Director of Public Works Rob Cascaden.
