Windsor’s town council has identified waterfront development as a focus point moving into 2013.
During a Nov. 20 strategy and policy committee meeting, Mayor Paul Beazley said he feels it’s time the multitude of reports compiled on the subject since 1978 be put to good use.
“We can glean some pretty good ideas from them,” he said.
Beazley said he’d like to see town staff and council work together to form a plan that will determine how the land surrounding the waterfront should be used.
Coun. John Bregante noted that it would be important for council to learn the fate of the waterfront property owned by the idled Windsor and Hantsport Railwaycompany.
“We may have to put some money in the budget to acquire some of those lands,” he said.
Director of Planning Bill Butler offered to review existing waterfront strategies, and provide council with an overview of the studies completed to date.
“Before you know where to go, maybe we should go back and refresh ourselves on where we’ve been because there are a number of studies that have been done and, if you’d like, I don’t mind going back and kind of synopsising what’s been done.”
CAO Louis Coutinho said the land has the potential to be used for recreational or commercial purposes.
Coun. Scott Geddes suggested turning to the business sector for ideas.
“I think that we should take a look at private enterprise putting together possible development proposals for our waterfront as well and see if there’s interest in our business sector,” he said, later adding: “I think we may be very pleasantly surprised in the interest in our waterfront.”
