Community Strategic Plan

Creating Our Tomorrow

In 2004 Oshawa launched a community strategic planning process to develop a vision and objectives to guide the work of the City and its community partners over the next five years. After extensive consultation Creating Our Tomorrow was endorsed, released and implementation started in 2005.

The following are excerpts from the plan that relate to heritage issues facing Oshawa:

Goal A: A Vibrant, Strong, Progressive Community

One aspect of this goal is a "stronger awareness of Oshawa's assets - its strategic, economic advantages and its unique heritage and 'hidden treasures'.

Strategies to achieve this include encouraging visual (aesthetic) improvements as part of residential and commercial development and redevelopment which Heritage Oshawa sees as an opportunity to enhance our historical architecture by emphasizing its uniqueness, and not by demolishing or covering it up.

Support for the renovation of the designated Regent Theatre is cited in the plan, as well as the development of grant programs for arts, culture and heritage organizations and a call to "encourage more events like 'Doors Open'. These strategies all indicate that heritage issues are important to the well-being of the community.

Goal B: A Green and Sustainable Community

One important strategy to achieve this goal is to "protect heritage buildings, natural features and agricultural land" by encouraging "the re-use and protection of heritage buildings, establishing limits to urban development and encouraging development that takes into account natural features.

Heritage Oshawa promotes the retention of green space and has completed research reports on Alexandra Park, Lakeview Park, Memorial Park, a preliminary report on Camp Samac and has included Second Marsh and the Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens as Doors Open sites. Residents are proud of their green space and "want to see Oshawa's special green and environmentally sensitive areas sustained for future generations".

A balance between rural and urban is requested and Heritage Oshawa supports the need to manage growth and use land wisely. In particular the threat to Oshawa's rural properties, many with farmhouses dating from 1860 to 1900 are monitored by the committee.

In the urban areas, Heritage Oshawa has been involved with use of brownfield developments by signing off on the demolition permit for the ACSYS site and participating in the public discussions of the Fittings Site.

Heritage Oshawa supports the vision put forth in the Oshawa Community Strategic Plan and looks forward to working with the community, City staff and Council on its implementation.