It's a packed agenda with concept drawings for Museum Square, the results of an integrity commissioners report, and the results from a recent recreation study.
WOODSTOCK - It's a sneak peak of what could be the future of downtown Woodstock.
Construction has started on phase one of the Downtown Streetscape Plan, which will completely revitalize the downtown core.
Mayor Jerry Acchione says City Council will look the most expensive aspects of the plan during this Thursday's meeting.
"The major expense is Museum Square itself, or our new Civic Square, and a potential City Hall expansion. These are concept drawings so they're just something put together to see the whole picture of the streetscape as well as what Civic Square and a potential expansion at City Hall could look like."
The concept drawings for Museum Square include a permanent stage with seating as well as a skating rink in the winter and a water feature in the summer.
Speaking of the Streetscape Plan, this Thursday's agenda also includes the integrity commissioners report from an investigation earlier this year. It was launched after Councillor Kate Leatherbarrow removed herself from a vote to eliminate the Downtown Streetscape Plan from the 2025 back in December, citing a conflict of interested due to her downtown business. However, Leatherbarrow did not remove herself from another vote regarding the Streetscape Plan at a prior meeting.
According to Mayor Acchione, the report has concluded that Leatherbarrow did nothing wrong.
"The integrity commissioners opinion was that the councillor did what was instructed and followed along at the correct times. So no code of conduct infractions were found in his opinion, and he is not taking it forward to a judge for any type of other decisions."
Once the investigation was first announced, Leatherbarrow posted a video on her Facebook page addressing the matter. She said she consulted the integrity commissioner before both votes took place and she had no malicious intent. The city has also had three integrity commissioners since the council term began in 2022.
City Council will also have its first look at the results of the recent recreation study this week. The survey had almost 1,700 respondents between February 10th and March 7th, and 90 percent of them stated that they use Woodstock's recreation facilities daily.
Mayor Acchione adds 86 percent of the respondents live in Woodstock, so the remaining 14 percent live out of town.
"There is a couple of maps listed in this report showing where those pockets are coming from and its quite interesting. Keep in mind, some of the swimmers were coming here because the Tillsonburg pool was closed and the Ingersoll pool was closed, so I don't know if they got interested and started replying."
Another interesting report on the agenda highlights the City's parks. Mayor Acchione says we have an impressive amount of greenspace in the Friendly City.
"We have 56 parks in the City of Woodstock. The goal is to have four hectares of parks per 1,000 people, so we're on track for that. With the growth we have been experiencing, its a big number to keep going and pushing, but we are so proud of what we have here. We have some world class spots."
Thursday's City Council meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and it will be livestreamed on the City of Woodstock YouTube page. You can also find the meeting agenda online here.
During his interview on the Heart FM morning show today, Mayor Acchione was also asked to comment on Oxford County Council's decision to approve the Official Plan application for the proposed development at 401 Lakeview in Woodstock.
He says this does not change the fact that City Council voted against changing the zoning for this project, which looks to add over over 250 housing units to the 10 acre property in the north end of the City. However, the developer has filed for an appeal, which means the City will have to have a lawyer and a planner ready to defend their decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
With that being said, Mayor Acchione says they will have to find a new planner.
"The City uses the County planners, so we can't use those can't use those same County planners that say they recommend this."
You can listen to our full interview with Mayor Acchione below:
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