Participate in planning the future

Windsor and West Hants comprise an area with just about everything going for it.

As West Hants Chamber of Commerce president Gordon Winstone says, the location is a large part of it. It’s where Metro and the Valley meet.

We can add an attractive geography and the inhabitants to the mix as well.

As Winstone notes, continued growth in population and business in the corridor also means the same for outlying areas, and there are many small businesses and services in the communities off Highway 101.

People have to be made aware of the businesses available and what they offer and those enterprises need to make their concerns known so their interests are protected.

Windsor has already begun its downtown revitalization and continues with such things as a priority of working constructively with youth.

But the full effect of twinning Highway 101, the traffic and increased population pressures aren’t always immediate. They can present challenges maybe even have negative aspects.

People coming from larger centres to retire and even those returning from places like Alberta and Ontario, where they may have lived and worked for decades, will expect more services and be prepared to pay for them.

Infrastructure -- roads and facilities -- will have to be maintained and improved. This is why venues such as the Hants Aquatic Centre aren’t merely conveniences; they’re necessities.

And entities as mundane as the community hall, with its new cost burdens due to safety and liability, have to be upgraded or, quite frankly, bulldozed, with the surrounding area suffering the social and heritage consequences.

But business and residential development also requires municipal regulation to ensure compatible land uses for the protection of all concerned. Property values and quality of life and environmental interests can suffer if this balance isn’t kept.

Tonight’s West Hants Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) public information session at the council chambers is an example of what has to happen as Hants County and, in particular, West Hants and immediate communities prepare to meet the various and complex benefits and challenges of development.

The session promises to discuss such diverse things as agricultural issues, mobile home placement, watercourse protection, wind turbine regulations and even off-highway vehicle use. These are issues with which municipalities across the province have grappled for some time.

A lot of good is coming to Hants County, including West Hants, Windsor and Hantsport. In fact, much is already here.

But great changes are needed also, including new and improved infrastructure and facilities, new rules for development and new rules for collective ways of doing things.

However, time is short. We just can’t sit back and watch the changes and wonder how they will affect us individually. We have to take ownership of them collectively and guide them, or somebody else will do it for us.