150811 Development MINP a g e | 1
CORPORATE OFFICE
200 Broadway, Tillsonburg, Ontario, N4G 5A7, Telephone # (519) 842-6428, Fax # (519) 842-9431
Web: www.tillsonburg.ca
TOWN OF TILLSONBURG DEVELOPMENT
COMMITTEE
MINUTES
DATE: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 TIME: 7:30 AM
LOCATION: 10 Lisgar Ave – Board Room, Customer Service Centre
Committee Members in Attendance: Mike Bossy, Andrew Burns, Lisa Gilvesy,
Councillor Jim Hayes, Kirby Heckford, Mayor Stephen Molnar, Ashton Nembhard, Steve
Spanjers, Randy Thornton (Departed 8:30 AM),
Staff Present: Cephas Panschow
Regrets: David Calder, Jesse Goossens, Scott McLean, Cedric Tomico, John Veldman
Melissa Verspeeten
1) Call to Order
Meeting was called to order at 7:30 AM.
2) Adoption of Agenda
A. Burns – 1st
R. Thornton – 2nd
“Carried”
3) Disclosure of Pecuniary Interest
None
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CORPORATE OFFICE
200 Broadway, Tillsonburg, Ontario, N4G 5A7, Telephone # (519) 842-6428, Fax # (519) 842-9431
Web: www.tillsonburg.ca
4) Adoption of Minutes of May 12, 2015
J.Hayes – 1st
L.Gilvesy – 2nd
“That the Minutes of June 9, 2015 be approved.”
“Carried”
5) Business Arising from the Minutes:
a) Comments from Development Committee on Recreation, Culture &
Parks Planning Items
i) Official Plan Section 8.6 Leisure Resources
ii) Parkland Dedication Policy/By-Law
A. Nembhard circulated a summary review of the Parkland dedication bylaw and raised
the question as to whether this bylaw is unduly adding to the costs of complexity
companies face when evaluating development projects. Discussion regarding applicability
of this requirement for industrial development versus residential or commercial
development as often this requirement is taken care of by the subdivision developer and
not the individual developments within an industrial subdivision.
Discussion regarding who within the Town is responsible for reviewing and streamlining
development review processes. Is there a formal review process after each
approval/project is completed? It was confirmed that there is no one person responsible
for this at this time.
Chair to provide an example of a template that could be used.
Staff to look into how this was handled with the Highway 3 Business Park Plan of
Subdivision and report back.
Staff to provide analysis to Recreation, Culture & Parks Department for review.
6) Standing Items
a) Community Strategic Plan
Tricia Smith has been hired to fill this position and she will take on responsibilities for
Community Strategic Plan reporting.
b) Post-Secondary Education
A draft summary of the Education and Workforce Survey was provided with advice to:
Look at the needs identified by specific companies in case there are any items to be
addressed immediately;
Contact Marwood re their plans to open training facilities to wider public;
Identify any key employers that did not respond to the survey and consider
contacting directly;
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CORPORATE OFFICE
200 Broadway, Tillsonburg, Ontario, N4G 5A7, Telephone # (519) 842-6428, Fax # (519) 842-9431
Web: www.tillsonburg.ca
Try to increase responses from agriculture related companies
Provide summary of question 14 (other comments)
Mayor agreed to circulate Town’s education delegation request to Minister at Association
of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference.
c) Tillsonburg Hydro Inc – Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Two positions are being advertised currently with one being a replacement and the other
being a new Business Analyst position.
7) New Business
None.
8) Economic Development Update
Development Commissioner provided second quarter report summary. New businesses,
website activity and corporate visits are tracking above targets while lead files and file
management are tracking below targets.
Two industrial properties that had been on the market for a number of years have now
been purchased by an investment group and more information will be available in the
future.
Clarification regarding website and branding projects. These are both running
concurrently with the website being focused on clear and concise communication to the
public with increased usability while the branding project is about how the Town looks
when it communicates internally and externally. Branding is more than just a logo/tag
line, it is also about the brand promise and how any company fulfills its promises to its
customers.
253 Broadway Update - Committee advised that investor has retained architectural,
planning, and engineering services and are working with Town staff to obtain approvals in
advance of the end of May conditional date.
Update on Town’s online targeted marketing campaign was provided. Town has
purchased 1 million impressions and 189,398 have been received to date. The click
through rate for the Town’s campaign has been higher than the industry average for the
first 3 months of the campaign.
Suggestion to add in following key words:
Agricultural (agribusiness?), wind energy, start your business, warehousing
Also, consider temporarily changing campaign to push residential marketing (Discover
Tillsonburg website) due to slowdown in housing starts in Q2.
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CORPORATE OFFICE
200 Broadway, Tillsonburg, Ontario, N4G 5A7, Telephone # (519) 842-6428, Fax # (519) 842-9431
Web: www.tillsonburg.ca
9) Liaison Updates
a) Departmental Reports
None.
b) Tillsonburg District Chamber of Commerce
No update.
c) Downtown Business Improvement Association
No update.
d) Tillsonburg District Real Estate Board
Melissa Verspeeten is being replaced by Lindsay Morgan as the board
representative and this was approved by Council on August 10, 2015.
e) Physician Recruitment - Dr. Gerry Rowland @ 8:15am
Committee is active and trying to raise the concern about Tillsonburg not being
designated underserviced due to improper boundaries of the area being served by
the hospital.
9) Roundtable
Suggest follow up on other recent investments (Saffire Blue).
10) Date of Next meeting – Tuesday, September 8, 2015 @ 7:30 AM
11) Adjournment
K. Heckford moved that the meeting be adjourned at 9:13 AM.