Skip to content

Village of Clyde wants to grow

Municipality would like to see its population hit 750 by 2025
village of clyde sign
The Village of Clyde would like to see its population hit 750 by 2025.

WESTLOCK - Village of Clyde councillors would like to see the community grow to 750 residents by 2025, a goal they’ve set out in the municipality’s recently adopted five-year strategic plan.

The plan was built upon a series of notes left by councillors when they attended a strategic planning workshop in 2017; some aspects had been revised in 2018, but the loose-leaf was never integrated into a document until their March 9 meeting.

“They’ve been working with some of the priorities that they identified but it’s never been compiled into a full report,” said assistant CAO Jaye Parrent in February, when administration first brought the issue in front of council.

“We worked hard to get the strategic plan into an actual plan rather than notes of what happened,” she added at the most recent meeting.

Council will essentially continue within a similar framework, which has now been put in writing. Part of their commitments include collaboration and transparency with residents, improving capital infrastructure, developer conversations, and a better relationship with regional neighbours.

“I like this format. It’s very easy to read,” said Coun. Danielle Dillman.

Significantly, council would like to see the village grow its population to 750. As per the most recent 2016 census, 430 people currently live in Clyde.

“It has to speak to what you think, your vision of what you can do with the Village of Clyde,” CAO Ron Cust told councillors.

“We can adopt this format as the baseline and then move forward to the next phase of adjusting it for the needs you have … into the next two or three years,” he said.

There are challenges to accomplishing that vision, and the document lists a lack of resources, infrastructure needs, lack of bylaw enforcement and a declining and aging population among them.

In order to reach the population growth goal, the village also struggles with marketing and the limited employment opportunities in the community.

“Village staff and councillors are working on a marketing plan for the village to draw more residents and businesses to Clyde, alleviating the pressure on current residents and taxes,” reads the document.

Administration has also developed a list of village-owned lots and buildings.

“The sale of village-owned vacant properties was brought to council back in September 2019. Administration is working to secure appraisals of the value of these properties from local realtors, and will be bringing forward for council consideration at a future meeting,” said Parrent via e-mail.

The strategic plan also focuses on the general “abundance of empty lots within village boundaries,” which council would like to fill with people and businesses.

In addition to internal changes, council would also like to see more concerted efforts to market the village, something they list as a key to growth.

Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @andreea_res

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks