Stone Mills, Ontario

TOWNSHI P OF STONE MI LLS , ONTAR IO experienced all this growth during a pandemic. The community felt things were moving ahead and they weren’t being informed. We had to address their concerns, while still encouraging growth.” Sands adds, “Successful land use planning only works with input, consensus building, and public participation. We’re moving into a greater reliance on digitalization, and it’s often the best method to seek input.” To gain more community involvement, the Township created and installed the Stone Mills Planning Application Dashboard (ArcGIS) on the community’s official website. This planning application portal connects residents with received applications in real time, maximizing municipal transparency. The Township also works hard to maintain its infrastructure assets. “As a municipality, we like to think of ourselves as innovative and self-starting,” says Brooks. “Most of our capital construction is undertaken from our own municipalities. Since 2020, we designed, maintain development projects. “Three years prior to the pandemic, the average housing application rate per year was about 30,” says Sands. “It was a pretty sleepy town in terms of development activity, but now we’ve essentially run on a tripling rate. We’re functioning at around 100 applications a year.” The Township hasn’t had a new residential subdivision since 2009, but that’s all changing. Currently, the municipality is working with five developers on a residential project to be submitted early 2022. There’s also plans for more affordable housing. Specifically, a fourplex or eightplex to be built on ‘pro bono’ land the municipality is granting to the county. Once underway, these development projects will massively exceed any development during the previous decade. All these changes, however, don’t come without growing pains. As Brooks admits, “There was a disconnect within our community. We