Belleville’s mayor is ready to begin the process of redrawing ward boundaries to better reflect the changing demographics and growth in the city, since amalgamation 23 years ago.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk will introduce a motion at Monday’s council meeting, which suggests increasing the number of wards in the city to four, with two councillors per ward.
“Ward One would be basically a west end ward of the city. It would run from Dundas up to Bell Boulevard, east of Wallbridge-Loyalist Road. It’s sort of the old part of the city that used to be part of Sidney Township before amalgamation. Ward Two would be that east hill, traditional Belleville urban ward. We don’t expect to see a lot of growth in that area of the city moving forward, so it would have the most people to start off with. Ward Three would be kind of a grouping of the urban parts of Belleville north and south of the 401. So that includes the newer subdivisions that are part of Thurlow Ward now, but would join in with Parkdale and areas north of Station Street. Ward Four would be the predominantly rural part of the city, running east from Haig Road to the Tyendinaga border and then north, including Plainfield and Foxboro and those areas.”
Panciuk tells Quinte News most of the city’s expansion is north into Thurlow Ward, so there needs to be more representation there, adding that the multiple ward system falls in line with what many other large and growing municipalities are doing, to better represent their residents, by grouping similar areas of the city together.
“Areas that are more urban that have services and transit, and all of those things, are grouped together. Then we retain the distinct Thurlow, rural part of the city and it balances it all out by not creating one big ward, where those Thurlow interests would be overwhelmed by the urban issues.”
Panciuk says the four proposed wards will also align a bit closer with the city’s tax base, which is split into four categories of Belleville urban and rural, or Thurlow urban and rural.
“There certainly would be parts of Ward 3 and Ward 1 that would have different tax rates. But predominantly, where the growth is going in those two wards would lead to be more similar. Ward 4, which would be that rural ward, is pretty much the same. Those folks are on wells and septic systems, rather than city services. They don’t have transit and a lot of the other services that residents pay for in other areas.”
As far as a timeline goes, the mayor says “we’re in no rush”, but the new boundaries would have to be in place by the end of the year if they were to be enacted for the next municipal election in 2022.
“If council agrees that we want to start to have some conversations with residents, we would do first reading of a by-law at the May 25 reading and then we would table it until later in the summer. That would give people a chance to see what we’re actually proposing and have some conversation, then we can take that input when we deal with it in August and make a decision.”
Under that timeline Panciuk says it would also give any residents who oppose the plan time to appeal the decision with provincial tribunals.
Should the changes move ahead, voters would choose two councillors to represent them and also cast a ballot for the mayor and school board trustees separately in the next election.
Panciuk added that even if the wards get split up, anyone wanting to run for a spot on council wouldn’t need to live in the ward they’re running in. He says anyone who lives in the city, or owns property here, could run in any ward.
Let us know what you think of the plan, by voting in our Quinte News Poll and check out the proposed new ward boundaries below.
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The proposed boundaries for Ward 1, if Belleville were to move ahead with a four-ward system.
The proposed boundaries for Ward 2, if Belleville were to move ahead with a four-ward system.
The proposed boundaries for Ward 3, if Belleville were to move ahead with a four-ward system.
The proposed boundaries for Ward 4, if Belleville were to move ahead with a four-ward system.
