Visioning Process

Chelsea is a community that we all feel passionately about. It has everything to offer - a rich history, a spectacular natural surrounding and great community spirit.

It is a community that has changed dramatically over the past 100 years and will likely continue to change over the next 100 years. How do we manage these changes to make sure we preserve those things that make Chelsea such a great place to live?

In recent years, Chelsea’s Centre-village has been the subject of much debate regarding everything from major new residential developments, to traffic, to paint colour! The fundamental question that underlies these issues is what type of Centre-village does Chelsea want in the future?

Vision Centre-village is a citizen led initiative that gives Chelsea residents a voice in planning the future of the Chelsea’s Centre-village. More specifically, the purpose is to develop a vision for the Centre-village that is supported by a broad cross section of Chelsea residents. This vision will be incorporated into municipal bylaws to guide day to day decision making.

The first phase of the visioning process began in October and wrapped up in mid February. This initial phase involved starting a community discussion on the future of the Chelsea Centre-village using basic questions.

The vision process involves 4 distinct phases:

Phase 1 – Asking residents about what they value in the present, what they hope for in the future (October 2009 to February 2010)

  • Web site online questionnaire
  • Neighbour to neighbour meetings
  • Formal presentations aimed at community groups
  • Vox Pop

Interview summary  

 

Phase 2 – Validating responses, developing strategies (February 2010) 

Citizens Forum and discussion groups on themes identified in Phase 1

On February 27, 2010, about 80 Chelsea residents from all walks of life, gathered at l’Oree du Bois restaurant to discuss the future of Chelsea’s villages. This ‘Citizen’s Forum’ was part of the community led visioning process for Chelsea’s historic villages and surrounding area.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the results of the almost 200 interviews that had occurred to date and drill down on the common themes that were identified.

Four discussion groups of 15 to 20 people were formed. Discussion was lively and a lot of different ideas came out regarding the future of our villages. At the same time there was a lot of consensus on many issues. The documents below are the notes taken for each of the discussion groups:

Phase 3 – Getting specific – mapping out a vision (March 2010)

Charette Exercise

Design charrettes are becoming an increasingly popular part of the urban planning process. They bring together a diverse range of expertise – such as architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners, content specialists, educators, students, community representatives, governmental staff and civic leaders – to collaborate on creating innovative design solutions that embody multiple objectives and mutual interests. Design charrettes give visual form to ideas and policies and are effective in generating creative solutions to difficult problems in the least amount of time. 

Vision Chelsea final report NEW!!!

Phase 4 – Incorporating the results of the vision process into Chelsea’s Master Plan

Master Plan

Municipal process with its own consultation process (April to December 2010)