Arran-Elderslie council plans to keep Chesley’s downtown area zoned commercial as part of its efforts to boost activity there.
The topic of possibly re-zoning the area to allow for residential use was considered at a special meeting February 6th and council members passed a resolution to uphold its policy and keep the small section in Chesley zoned commercial.
CAO Sylvia Kirkwood explains, councils goal is to ensure the downtown is kept as commercial on the ground floors and that they don’t want to see any further conversion to residential use there.
Kirkwood says, it means anyone making an re-zoning of minor variance application to convert a downtown property would now know where council is not going to support it.
She explained the municipality’s position when it comes to Chesley’s small down as being concerned about maintaining a commercial presence and not having Arran-Elderslie’s villages converted into bedroom communities.”
Recently, the CIBC branch in downtown Chesley closed its location and transferred its customers to the Hanover branch.
Meanwhile, the possibility of creating a Chesley community working group is set to be introduced in the form of a motion at council’s February 26th meeting. The goal of it would be to improve Chesley’s downtown.
That group would be made up of business owners, service groups and community members as well as some council members, Arran-Elderslie’s Economic Development and Communications Coordinator, among others.