Greenlands Centre Wellington Community Visions Workshop

Greening Commercial and Industrial Areas

What is your vision for greening commercial and industrial areas in TCW?

The greening of “employment lands” (e.g. west side of Tower St., Fergus) where natural green areas and streams are integrated into overall development plans and include walking trails, bicycle paths, parks and other amenities for healthy work places. Perhaps the theme could also include ‘water and stone’, two naturally occurring materials.
Green the approaches to Elora and Fergus (there is no sense of arrival presently). There are opportunities for the revitalization/re-landscaping of approaches to Elora and Fergus along the main highways fronting industrial and commercial areas. See industrial BIA’s in Toronto for examples.
Need for links from natural greenlands, trailways, and park system through the industrial and commercial centres of Elora and Fergus. Need a planting and landscaping plan.
Make “green” the identity of Centre Wellington. We (TCW) need to become an example or model for other communities in ‘going green’ – a tourism destination for green practices, buildings, industrial and commercial processes, etc. Eco-industrial tourism.
Redevelopment of some key downtown commercial sites into mixed-use, higher density, better integrated developments (e.g. strip mall conversions into mixed-use retail, commercial, residential)
Encourage re-use of older/heritage buildings.
Need more designated bicycle ways/trails
Encourage public transport – at present we have none.

What is required for commercial/industrial growth and greenlands to co-exist?

Municipal incentives and tighter controls to encourage businesses to go “green”.
Adopt a “Green Charter” to promote and encourage the use of “green” technologies to conserve energy, water, and other non-renewable resources (e.g. green roofs, etc.).
Encourage mixed uses in our employment areas – live and work closer together; shops and other amenities in employment areas.
Do remediation/redevelopment of blighted industrial areas into “green” areas for recreation or re-use. (e.g. Wolverine ponds no longer necessary for current user).
Chamber of Commerce sponsor Green Awards
Apply Smart Growth practices and criteria to the review and evaluation of all new development and reconstruction proposals. Also – examine how each proposal relates to the rest of the town, adjoining areas, livability, healthy communities.
Fast track review and approval process for “green projects” and provide fiscal and other incentives.
New standards and practices needed (e.g. porous parking lots to increase water recharge; LEED criteria in buildings; increasing minimum landscaped areas; buffers around certain developments; shading trellises in commercial areas; corporate recycling, etc.
Need for information resources (plans, photographs. articles) to be made available to public, township, and potential developers of what is technically possible and has been done elsewhere (e.g. Nanaimo BC; Victoria, BC docklands; Port Moody, BC; Newport Village)
Need better signage to find places of interest – both in approaches to town and within town.
Need better access to many places of interest/observation.
Get the message out – “Why Green? Survival.”

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