After two decades of decreases in population, jobs and tax assessment, Chatham-Kent is setting targets for growth.
During tonight’s council meeting, council will look to officially set growth strategy goals for the municipality, which include the population to increase at an annual rate of one percent, jobs to increase at a yearly rate of 0.5% and tax assessment to increase at an an annual rate of 1.5%.
Administration will continue to work on strategies to encourage and facilitate growth and report back with various options to council throughout this year and next.
Among the other issues to be discussed tonight: setting a maximum amount of $50,000 per building for residential building permit fees, deciding whether the municipality has any interest in purchasing any of the four Catholic schools scheduled to be closed in Chatham, and starting the process of possibly creating a notifying system that can let Chatham-Kent residents when there is an emergency.
