Op-Ed: New Year, New Canton

By Meredith McLoughlin

The New Year is approaching! For many this offers a time of reflection on the past year and an opportunity to set goals and intentions for the future. It can be a clean slate to address some of the issues we have felt encumbered by in the last year, and a time to encourage forward progress.

This type of reflection and focus on creating momentum is very similar to the process that we as the town of Canton and the Master Plan Committee have embarked on. As you may have heard in previous updates, much of the last year has been spent on reflection. The committee has been examining, with the help of our consultants, where are we as a community, who are we, what are our strengths and weaknesses, and what are the predictions for the future.

With a solid base now created, our next ask is for input. That’s right, we are asking for it. It’s time for the tough love. Time to examine what we love about our town and what needs to be addressed.

In our initial community input session held in October, we heard that traffic, open space, recreation and housing were areas that you as a community wanted to focus on. As well as the potential for Route 138 and the need to consider the impact on schools and how the community manages growth. Given these themes, we have started to delve deeper into those areas and are looking further at the data and qualitative feedback available to determine some potential opportunities and challenges.

The outcome is tangible goals that will guide Canton’s future for the next 10 to 15 years, and are vital to the continued development of Canton. There is great potential in our community; our location, economic stronghold, and dedicated citizens allow us to truly think big about the future of our town and we hope you will continue to be part of the process.

Please take some time this season to reflect on what makes Canton great, and what we can do to become even just a little bit better.

Our next public meeting will be held today, December 20, at the Canton Senior Center at 1:30 p.m. Our next Master Plan Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for January 17 at 7 p.m. in the library’s Aldrich Room (open to the public). We will be scheduling more public workshops, likely to be held in late February.

For more information and to sign up for updates, please go to www.cantonmasterplan.com.

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Dec 22 2018. Filed under Featured Content, From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.