Kensington looking to expand its boundaries

With its ability to grow "severely restricted,"the town of Kensington, P.E.I., is looking to expand.

Residents and business have been approaching the town wanting to build, but with no land left to expand, owners are being forcedto look outside of the Prince County town's borders.

Kensington Mayor Rowan Caseley says the town has commissioned a study which looks at annexing 106 nearby properties, whichhe believes isthe way to go.

"We want the town to be sustainable into the future and I believe a strong town is good not only for the town, but also all the outlying communities," said Caseley.

200 more souls

The expansion would increase the town's population from about1,600to 1,800 people. It would also bring in an additional $78,000 in taxrevenues for the town's coffers.

But the 34-page consultant's report saidthe primary objective is to make way for future development, not increase the tax base.

The town is hemmed in it does not have adjacent municipalities to consider merging with through amalgamation. The report says, "the town is also not interested in pursuing a large annexation of the surrounding agricultural, unincorporated land that falls within their regional service area, until such time as those residents express interest in having local municipal representation."

Caseley said the town did includeproperties that were adjacent to the current boundaries, already using the town's services or connected to the town's industrial park.

"If we didn't go outside the boundaries, we had no more industrial land in town," he said. "The current industrial park is full, the downtown core is full, so we had no place for businesses to expand in the town ."

Residents and business owners have until Dec. 31 to providefeedback, then council willdiscuss its next steps.

The town will have to make an application to the province should it decide to proceed with the boundary extension.

"We're hoping to receive a lot of responses back in writing," Caseley said.

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