Gravenhurst Community Strategic Plan Newsletter, August 2015

The Town of Gravenhurst 2015 Strategic Plan Community Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 1

August 2015

Town of Gravenhurst Community Strategic Plan First Community Meeting A Great Success!!!

The Town of Gravenhurst is developing a new Community Strategic Plan. This new Strategic Plan will be the Town’s vision for the future. It will identify a community based vision and a set of community priorities for the Town.

The Plan is being developed with the community and it will reflect the collective wisdom of those who live, work and play in Gravenhurst. The new Community Strategic Plan is an important document since it will serve as the Town’s roadmap to guide the actions of Council and staff in providing municipal services over the next four years and beyond.

Work on the Strategic Plan has only just begun. The Plan is being developed with the assistance of an outside consulting team. Karen Wianecki, Director of Practice, Planning Solutions Inc. and Carly Marshall, Associate, MHBC Planning will be working with us throughout the entire process. We have established a Strategic Planning Steering Committee, consisting of Members of Council and Senior Staff who will be overseeing the development of the Plan and providing direction to our consultants.

We began the process with a Steering Committee meeting on June 18th and set three important meetings to begin the process: a workshop with Town staff, a workshop with Council and a workshop with our community members. The staff workshop and Council workshop were held on July 13th – in the morning and afternoon respectively. The first community workshop was held on July 18th from 9:00 – 11:30.

More than 40 community members, staff and members of Council werein attendance. Staff from the Town of Gravenhurst and Members of Council were on hand to listen to the dialogue and to learn from those in attendance.

“We must think hard about where we want to be in five, 10 years from now and how we plan on getting there. A community-based strategic plan is one of the most important documents we can develop together. I hope to hear from as many full-time and seasonal residents as possible.” Mayor Paisley Donaldson

A Big Thank You to All Who Attended the First Community Workshop

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Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to attend the community workshop. We appreciate your interest and your support!

Participants were invited to join small working groups and to collectively work together to generate priorities for Council moving forward. Members of Council and Town staff were on hand to answer questions and to listen to the dialogue and ideas that were being generated. So what did we hear at the first Community Meeting?

Strategic Priorities & The Visioning Challenge…Three Great Designs From Workshop Attendees!

Three visioning schematics were developed by workshop participants to articulate their vision of Gravenhurst in the future.

For some community members, there needs to be an important focus placed on the 3C’s: Collaboration, Community and Communication. We need to be a fully accessible community, welcoming to all ages and stages.

What Did You Tell Us? The first community workshop provided an opportunity for community members to come together, roll up their sleeves and put some ideas on paper about their vision for Gravenhurst. While ideas came forward from five working groups, there were a number of important messages that were shared.

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You told us that there is a lot to love about Gravenhurst…

• the natural environment and beauty of the community; the walkability and connectivity; the rich history, our heritage and our culture; our lifestyle; the fact that we care about each other and that people are important here – we look after one another in Gravenhurst; we have easy access to Council and we are a welcoming community, a whole community.

We need to promote, protect and support our rich heritage and we need to create community connections – connecting people with one another, connecting with the natural environment including the lake, improving transportation and community-wide connectivity and focusing on improving internet and broadband connections. We need to support the arts, sports, music and recreation and recognize the important role our community groups and organizations play.

Many of these themes were shared by others, as evident from the pen picture that appears below:

We are a ‘community of communities’ in Gravenhurst.

We love the slower pace, the fact that we are ‘dark sky friendly’, the fresh air and clean water and we love the fireflies and the sun, moon and stars. There is indeed much to love about our community – we need to look for ways to keep what we have and make it even better.

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Community connections and accessibility was a key theme that emerged at the workshop. Enhanced recreational services, expanded trails, promoting beach areas, increased boat launch facilities, park-based

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We are a welcoming community We are open to opportunity We are the first Muskoka experience We are the gateway to their Muskoka experience and lifestyle Gravenhurst is a destination – we have it all right here.

Where To From Here?

Members of the consulting team will be speaking with individuals and organizations in the coming weeks.

Community members are invited to participate in the Community Survey that can be easily accessed from the following weblink: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JY8VGHN

programming and year-round recreation as well as promoting more recreational tourism and Day Tripper opportunities were also identified. Better wayfinding, signage and community identity building will be important in securing an edge on the future. To this end, several attendees suggested that it is important to understand that Gravenhurst is comprised of ‘everything inside the dotted line’…

Supporting and promoting a ‘Can Do’ philosophy, being customer service driven and being open and ready for business and for tourists was also an important theme.

As several community members suggested, the Strategic Plan should consider opportunities to grow the Town’s population and to diversify the local economy by attracting new business but also retaining existing businesses. Some suggested growing the number of businesses in the service and manufacturing sectors, and being known as a community that is a communication and technology leader.

Workshop participants also spent some time thinking about the existing Credo: Gravenhurst: Gateway to Muskoka Views on the credo were widely varied…some love the credo; some felt it should be changed slightly while others felt it should be completely changed.

Perhaps most notably, community members felt that there are a number of important actions that support the credo that should be included in the Strategic Plan…

There is also a Kitchen Table Dialogue Guide that we invite you to use in carrying out your own conversations about the future of Gravenhurst and what matters to you.

The Guide is available for download from the Town website.

All of the input you share will be used by our consulting team to develop an initial draft Strategic Plan that we will share with you in late September or early October. We will be sharing our progress with you via the Town website and we look forward to receiving your input and your great ideas.

Remember…

“Vision without action is merely a dream.

Action without vision just passes the time.

Vision with action can change the world.”

Joel A. Barker

We look forward to working with you!

For more information on the Strategic Plan and the strategic planning process or to share your thoughts, please visit the Town website:

http://www.gravenhurst.ca/en/Strategic-Planning.asp

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