The Canton City Council, The Canton Planning and Zoning Commission, and a Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee held a public meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13 to discuss the updating of the City of Canton 2004 Comprehensive Plan.

In attendance were team members from Halff Associates, an architectural, engineering, and planning firm located out of Richardson.

Speaking on behalf of Halff Associates, Carnell Brame welcomed the public in attendance and expressed the company’s excitement to be involved.

“Thank you all for being here tonight and coming to the open house presentation for ‘Cultivate Canton 2035’ plan. We are ecstatic to be helping to support the city on this new plan,” Brame noted.

Prior to the agenda, Director of Operations for the City of Canton, Peter Lamont, gave an update from the city on the plan.

“The city is moving forward. Obviously, if you have been around Canton, you know that we are growing. Our population from 2010-2020 grew by just over 670 [residents]. In the period of Oct. 2020 to Oct. 2022, we have planted enough housing for another 570, so we have planted almost as much in two years as we grew in 10 years. This project is going to help us prepare for that,” Lamont continued. “We are updating our planning and zoning ordinances to allow for growth, but not to the point where we find ourselves with a bunch of these ultra-dense communities that you see pop up around the state. We’ve updated our ordinances so we can prevent that and keep population density regulated to a point to where it doesn’t overwhelm our services, schools, and allows us to grow at a reasonable rate. The goal of this plan is to help us take Canton and allow it to grow, but not lose what Canton is. That’s why the Council has taken the steps that they have, and why we got Halff Associates to help us get further down that road.”

To open the agenda, Brame gave an overview of the project itself and a look into what the timeline might look like.

“We are currently in phase three of the project which is the largest phase. We kicked off this project back in July when we met with staff and city council. To begin, we started with a needs assessment, which included looking at zoning, financials of the city, and things of that matter. Now, we have moved on to the community visiting stage, where we ask residents what you envision for the future of Canton. We plan to gather feedback from the council as well as the public to establish a unified vision of Canton for the next 15 years. The next phase, phase four, is the adoption phase. When we get there, we will put everything together and help outline a clear path on how to achieve the community vision each year,” Brame added.

Brame also noted the need for an update, breaking down what’s changed since the last update in 2004.

“You may think ‘Why plan now?’ As Peter mentioned, the previous plan was adopted in 2004, which is a long time ago. A lot of things have changed since then. This plan will look at what the previous plan’s vision for the city was and create a new vision that’s more modern and based on what’s happening today. There is a need to refresh the community vision.”

Brame concluded the agenda portion by discussing future meetings and timelines for the project.

“We plan to have additional meetings in the Spring, so we can receive feedback as we get closer to establishing the final plan. We also have a project webpage, and a community survey which anyone can participate in. The next big stage will be presenting at a city council meeting within the first two months of 2023. Stay tuned for these and more upcoming opportunities to provide your input,” Brame concluded.