A public open house is scheduled for Monday night in Lakeshore to showcase plans to develop an over 1173 acre piece of land in the municipality.
The area known as Wallace Woods is is bounded by County Road 22 and the Canadian Pacific Railway, just south of Lake St. Clair, and Patillo Road and Puce River.
The open house will let the public see the proposed Wallace Woods Secondary Plan, which will guide the future development of a mixed-use neighbourhood over the next several decades.
Truper McBride, Lakeshore's Chief Administrative Officer, says this is a large planning area with a range of uses being proposed.
"There's a new town centre type of idea taking root that would be mixed-use with some commercial and various services within walking distance of residents," he says. "There's larger, more traditional residential districts that would be on the periphery of the planning area. There's also some new employment lands that we're looking at on the very western side."
McBride says they are looking at around 14,000 new people coming into Lakeshore as a result of this proposal.
"I think we're looking at 1,500 new residential units, depending on the density that gets proposed that could increase. Looking at about 2.3 people per house, those are the kind of numbers we're looking at. So it's a significant increase to the population of Lakeshore that's coming up," he says.
McBride calls this is a fantastic opportunity to master plan a community all at once.
"Really taking the time at the beginning to decide what the community is going to look like, how it's going to function and tie together, instead of slowly trying to figure it out as you go along. So this is an opportunity to get planning right in Lakeshore and its a pretty exciting process ahead," he adds.
A Community Open House will be hosted on April 25, 2022 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Renaud Room, Atlas Tube Recreation Centre, 447 Renaud Line in Belle River.