Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 12

123 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 TOWNSHI P OF WELLESLEY , ONTAR IO Nowak asserts, “The houses that come up for sale on the market right now, they really don’t last long. It’s well noted that there is a big push for people getting out of the city and coming to the small communities.” Currently, the township has three projects on the go to help alleviate the housing crunch in the Wellesley area, one is a 180-unit building, another includes 50 townhouses, and a third with 25 townhomes. “Unless the region changes its plans, that’s about as much as we can expand,” says Nowak. “That’s probably the extent of the growth that we are going to see for some time. We have our constraints with services, with the sewage plant, and that sort of thing.” Education-wise, the township has several elementary schools, Mennonite schools, and a private trades school in Hawkesville, but students are bused into surrounding communities for secondary school. Residents of the township are about a 10-minute drive to the University of Waterloo, Laurier University, Township Public School building, which was constructed in 1898. Approximately 11,400 residents call Wellesley Township home. That number has been very slowly increasing because more than 90% of the over 100 square kilometer municipality is prime and protected agricultural land. Nowak doesn’t see the region changing that, but the township has spent many months advocating for increased employment lands to add to their complement of industrial businesses. Many of the farms are run by the thriving local Mennonite community. They also operate successful farm shops, which produce and fabricate parts for companies all across Canada and the United States. According to Nowak, “There are more than 300 such shops in the township and many Help Wanted signs offering lots of opportunities. The Region of Waterloo is in the process of redoing their official plan right now, so we’ve been pressing them to add more employment lands for us out here.” A successful industrial park in the Village of St. Clements is nearly full, with two vacant lots. There are other industrial areas in Hawkesville, as well as in Wellesley Village which is where the township hopes to expand employment. Nowak doesn’t categorize the township as the traditional definition of a bedroom community, but many people who are working remotely have relocated to the township since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because of the combination of a rural feel and the proximity to a larger urban center. Most of the villages have high speed internet connections, not all are fiber, but the Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) expansion program will increase fiber coverage in 2022 and it is hopeful that the Universal Broadband Fund will further expand fiber in the near future. When it comes to residential development,