Carlyle town council greeted news of population growth and strong lot sale numbers for 2011 with serious considerations about future expansions.
The Jan. 18 meeting of Carlyle town council began with consideration of two new municipal election policies meant to increase transparency in municipal governance.
The first would see full public disclosure by elected candidates of all properties owned within the municipality.
The second would require all candidates to submit criminal record checks with their candidacy papers.
Council supported the idea of land disclosure, however declined to support the criminal records check.
The disclosure will now have to be written into the election by-law, where it will face a vote from council.
The sole delegation for the evening was Christina Canart, on behalf of the Saskatchewan Â鶹ÊÓƵ East Enterprise Region (SSEER) Regional Housing Initiative.
Canart explained the latest developments in the housing program, which seeks to bring communities together with private and not-for-profit housing developers to meet the growing housing issues facing the Â鶹ÊÓƵeast region.
Asking the town to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SSEER, and make an investment of $2,500 to support the program, Canart explained to council that a committee of involved persons in the community needed to be formed to begin work on a housing needs assessment.
Canart explained that she would provide support for the committee in assisting them in designing the report, as well as gathering the data which would inform the aforementioned document.
With such a document ready and in-hand, Canart explained, Carlyle would be able to provide this information to potential developers, who could then use the collected information to focus their development efforts on demographics that were lacking in housing, as well as making use of the report to apply for government grant support.
The council accepted the report, as well as the draft MOU document, and will consider the matter further.
Speaking further of growth following the delegation, council was informed that more than $500,000 in lots had been sold in 2011, and further, that the latest Sask Health population report for Carlyle put the population at 1,867, or a 18.16% increase from the previous year.
Finally, good news was delivered to council in the form of a correspondence from Sask Environment.
Expansion of the town to the south had been hampered by an existing ruling by that body which demanded a 600 meter exclusion zone around the town's sewage lagoon.
Following an appeal, the zone of exclusion has been reduced to 500 meters, allowing the town to consider further development to the south.
