Business View Civil and Municipal | June 2022

78 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 6 The Town of Yarmouth acts as a service hub for the entire region and its population of over 60,000, offering the nearest grocery stores, government services, health care, retail, and more. Jeff Gushue, Chief Administrative Officer, says he moved to Yarmouth 30 years ago for the people and the climate. He notes, “We are too big to be small and we’re too small to be big – meaning Yarmouth is a big enough town in that we have a lot of amenities and opportunities that typical small towns don’t have, and when I say, we’re too small to be big, we don’t have the big city problems, at least not in abundance. So, we’re still a small town in character, yet we have enough amenities to make it enjoyable.” The biggest industry in the area is the fishery, which makes up the bulk of employment, with hundreds of independent business owners working through Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The government is the next largest employer, operating both the Yarmouth Regional Hospital and the Tri-County Regional School Board. Although the current housing inventory is low, there are several applications for developments of all sizes in different stages of the planning process, with some in the permit stage and others in the financing stage. Smith believes in the coming years the housing stock will offer enough space for all those who wish to relocate. There are buildings currently being repurposed in the downtown core. According to Gushue, “A developer is in the process of redeveloping the town’s former high school. It’s expected to offer 54 dwellings…we’ll give it new life, right in the center of town.” The hope is to put people in the newly revived downtown district that’s been a decade in the making. The revitalization project was awarded a 2022 National Urban Design Award for its impact on the surrounding environment. Completed in the spring of 2021, the redevelopment focused on beautification, while creating a pedestrian-friendly, accessible downtown with a coastal vibe, using lobster