Branding and economic development will be the focus of a newly formed committee in Lantzville.
The District of Lantzville is currently looking for volunteers to serve on the economic development strategic plan and community branding select committee, which was formed in July after councillors voted in favour of its terms of reference.
The main function of the committee will be to provide councillors and other interested parties with feedback as Lantzville begins forming an economic development strategy and branding initiative. The committee will be comprised of seven members including Coun. Will Geselbracht, a member of the village core commercial sector, a member from the industrial park, a member from the development community and three residents of Lantzville. Volunteers would serve on the committee from November 2017 until March 2018.
Councillors have earmarked $57,500 toward the cost of creating the economic development strategy as well as $25,000 for community branding. However, Lantzville has received a $30,000 grant from Island Coastal Economic Trust, which will help reduce the overall cost.
According to a report to council, economic development and branding for Lantzville were identified as priorities by councillors and the decision to combine the two was made during a committee of the whole meeting on June 5, where councillors determined that with heavy public engagement required for the district’s ongoing water master plan formulation and official community plan, that having two separate committees could be too much for the public and too costly.
Coun. Bob Colclough said part of the idea behind creating the committee is to further build community and involve the public in the decision-making process.
“A big part of what a lot of us are trying to do here is build community,” he said. “We want to get input from people in business and other representatives of the community too. So, what we’ve done is combine the economic development with the branding. It’s really pulling together who we are and what we are and to let other knows what we have to offer.”
Coun. John Coulson said the committee has potential to be beneficial to Lantzville, but isn’t sure it will be, adding that the original plan was to undertake branding and create an economic development strategy before undertaking an official community plan review.
“The plan was, we would do branding first. Identifying what Lantzville is first. Are we semi-rural? Are urban? Are we semi-urban? What are we? So, that’s what branding was supposed to be. Economic development was supposed to be more specific onto what does Lantzville need for economic development, with a major focus of it being on the village core,” Coulson said. “There is probably still value in a properly done economic development plan because we can always update the OCP. Branding, I don’t know. I believe we missed the boat on that one but it is still a worthwhile exercise.”