Charting a Course for Growth

The Municipality has distributed its regular monthly updates regarding Charting a Course for Growth, MOC’s comprehensive plan to position our communities for residential, commercial, and industrial growth. You will find it in our Document Library, or click here for the November update.

We are distributing these updates in an effort to consolidate all of the initiatives’ progress in one document as well as to help address and answer the public’s questions or concerns.

Please note that the first page is an Introduction and is the same as last month's update, but the remaining information is new activity only.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Team Lead Brian Webb, Senior Economic Development Officer.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in one of our engagement sessions held throughout the Municipality in September and October. We heard from over 110 people to-date at 15 sessions held throughout our seven districts.

We are sharing the "What We Heard Summary" from these sessions and invite your input. Click here to open the summary in a new tab.

Please contact us with your thoughts on what we heard and share any additional details that would be helpful as we prepare for the 3rd round of engagement sessions in January 2025 (details coming soon).

The growth plan public engagement sessions originally scheduled to take place on November 25-26, 2024, will be postponed to January 2025.

This decision was made due to the scheduled engagement sessions coinciding with the upcoming provincial election. Postponing the final phase of engagement until after the holiday season will also provide the project team more time to consider and incorporate public feedback received at the October engagement sessions.

We will also communicate this change using social media, radio, and community bulletin boards. We are unable to distribute a mailout prior to Nov 25^th due to the short notice of the election call and a potential labour disruption at Canada Post. Further details on the timing and locations for the January engagement sessions will be mailed to residents once they have been confirmed.

Updated: November 14, 2024

The Municipality of Chester has received $1,986,000 in funding through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to support nine initiatives supporting the Charting a Course for Growth plan. Details and progress updates are provided below:

By-Laws and Municipal Specifications Review: The Municipality has initiated a comprehensive and integrated review of the Subdivision By-Law, Sewer By-Law, and Municipal Specifications to more efficiently and effectively advance appropriate housing development:

Progress Update: This project has been tendered and bids are currently being evaluated.

Missing Middle Housing Strategy: The aim of this strategy is to review where growth is anticipated to occur within the Municipality and amend existing planning documents to encourage and facilitate growth in serviced areas outside the Village Planning Area.

Progress Update: A planning consultant, FBM, has been retained to assist in several of the study tasks, including community engagement in support of this strategy. Engagement sessions were held in September and October and a 3rd phase of engagement is scheduled for early January 2025 (postponed from November due to the Provincial election). We anticipate developing a new “Village Periphery Area” that will consider active transportation, wastewater infrastructure, climate risk, and more.

Plan for Municipally-Owned Land: The Municipality is developing a map of all municipally-owned properties and reviewing each property to determine its suitability for potential affordable housing projects.

Progress Update: In April, FBM’s Planning Studio began working with the Municipality on our Growth Plan and have incorporated an initial scan completed by staff into their identification of potential opportunities to support the creation of affordable housing in the area. In addition, FBM will be assisting in developing an internal process to assess and acquire land that could be made available to not-for-profit organizations for affordable housing projects.

Online Permitting System: This initiative will lead to the development and implementation of an online permitting system that will streamline the application and approval process.

Progress Update: A tender for this scope of work was released Summer 2024 and bids are currently being evaluated.

Marketing & Sales for Residential Development: This work is designed to creatively secure new building units by building awareness among developers and other stakeholders.

Progress Update: Work on this initiative will get started in 2025 as it is reliant on the work currently underway with FBM.

Housing Infrastructure Plan: The Municipality will create a comprehensive map of existing serviceable boundaries, potential new wastewater treatment sites, and currently undeveloped land that could readily be included in existing or expanded wastewater service areas. The Plan will also explore service feasibility and business case development possible water supply infrastructure options. Finally, the Housing Infrastructure Plan will also identify resources and processes for data concerning watersheds and inland and coastal flood risk areas to further aid the planning and prioritization of climate resilient infrastructure and service delivery.

Progress Update: Comprehensive mapping for wastewater completed in April 2024. Maps can be found in our Document Library. The first test wells are scheduled to be drilled in Robinson's Corner this Fall as part of the work underway to identify a viable groundwater source for the Village of Chester.

Building Inspector Capacity: Hiring and training additional building inspectors will expedite inspections and permits for occupancy.

Progress Update: Council recently appointed two new Residential Building Officials who are working on achieving their Level 1 certification in the coming months and Level 2 by 2026.

Develop Pre-Approved Building Plans: The Municipality of Chester has committed to working with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Province of Nova Scotia and other potential partners to review pre-approved building plans and adopt plans that are appropriate within our local permitting process. Once completed, property owners would have access to building plans the Municipality has confirmed are pre-approved and ready to build, significantly speeding up the permitting process.

Progress Update: No updates at this time as the preliminary work to develop plans is being done by the federal government, CMHC, and other partners.

Incentives to Encourage the Creation of Affordable Housing: The Municipality of Chester’s Housing Needs Report found that as of the end of 2022, there was a gap between housing demand and available supply of about 335 units. Historical construction trends indicate this gap will continue to grow unless our pace of construction increases. Additionally, affordability of housing is a significant risk for current and future residents of the Municipality. Currently, 85% of households have estimated income levels that are below the threshold required to afford the median-priced home within the Municipality.

Progress Update: In addition to the work listed above, FBM will help identify barriers that prevent the construction of affordable housing units within the Municipality and propose solutions as part of their final report anticipated in Spring 2025. Once completed, we anticipate proposing a series of incentives to encourage developers and not-for-profits to create affordable and attainable units throughout the Municipality.

We invite you to participate in an upcoming public engagement sessions coming to a location near you. These sessions will review the September 2024 public engagement as many people were unable to attend. Additionally, the sessions will discuss potential policies for growth within the Municipality of Chester and look at housing regulation changes that would align with these policies and our collective vision for growth.

The Municipality has distributed its second regular monthly updates regarding Charting a Course for Growth, MOC’s comprehensive plan to position our communities for residential, commercial, and industrial growth. You will find it in our Document Library, or click here for the October update.

We are distributing these updates in an effort to consolidate all of the initiatives’ progress in one document as well as to help address and answer the public’s questions or concerns.

Please note that the first page is an Introduction and is the same as last month's update, but the remaining information is new activity only.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Team Lead Brian Webb, Senior Economic Development Officer.

Going forward, the Municipality will distribute regular monthly updates regarding Charting a Course for Growth, MOC’s comprehensive plan to position our communities for residential, commercial, and industrial growth. You will find them in our Document Library, or click here for the September update.

We are distributing these updates in an effort to consolidate all of the initiatives’ progress in one document as well as to help address and answer the public’s questions or concerns.

Please note that this initial document is larger than what’s expected going forward as the monthly updates will only have new information except for the timeline.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Team Lead Brian Webb, Senior Economic Development Officer.

We got off to a rocky start with unintentional late notice of the four Session 1 public engagement meetings. Unfortunately, print and delivery didn't go as planned, but has been rectified for Sessions 2 and 3.

To compensate, we recorded one of the sessions (below). While this doesn’t take the place of an in-person event, it at least will provide context for the upcoming sessions. The presenter will also revisit topics covered in Session 1 at future engagements.

We invite you to participate in the upcoming public engagement sessions so that your valuable insights can guide how the Growth Plan takes form. Three public engagement sessions are being organized, each with a differing theme:

Your participation in the development of the growth plan is essential, and we encourage you to join us at one of the upcoming Session 1 engagements:

Sessions 2 and 3 will be hosted in October and November in locations around the Municipality of Chester. We will provide more information on these upcoming sessions when the details are finalized.

The Municipality of Chester is growing! More people are recognizing that our Municipality is a great place to live, a welcoming place to start and grow a business, and a wonderful place to visit. Since 2016, the population of the Municipality has grown 10% to an estimated 11,525 as of July 2023, and populations seem to be growing in every district.

Work is now underway to ensure that we are well prepared to manage this growth. In April, the Municipality began working with FBM’s Planning Studio to collect data and develop population and workforce growth projections with a view to the next 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. Projections will provide a range of forecasts based on three scenarios: status quo, moderate growth, and high growth. We will also be provided with tools to help understand the anticipated demographic makeup of the community and what can be done to ensure we have housing that is attainable for people we are attracting to our communities.

This initial work is the first milestone and will form the basis of future work, including:

• Identification of areas where new or expanded wastewater sites may be needed and where water supply infrastructure may be feasible,
• Encouraging the production of attainable housing units to meet the needs of different households,
• Addressing barriers and gaps in employer needs and workforce development within the Municipality,
• Assessment of existing recreation services to understand current and future anticipated needs.

The work is just getting started and we’re looking forward to the input you will provide. As the Municipality moves forward, we are committed to ensuring our communities continue to attract people as wonderful places to live, visit, and invest.