- Organization: Town of Carleton Place
- Posted: July 15th, 2020
The Corporation of the Town of Carleton Place is pleased to announce that Niki Dwyer has been hired as the town’s new Director of Development Services. Dwyer will begin her employment with the town on Monday, July 27, 2020.
The Director of Development Services is a new position within the organization, created to manage and coordinate all development related activities, including engineering, planning, building, and heritage. This position is largely paid for through fees charged for development applications.
“The expansion of the development team was long overdue,” says Mayor Doug Black. “Staff in these departments work tirelessly to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for local development projects and bringing Niki on board will only strengthen the great work coming from these departments.”
In both 2018 and 2019, the Planning Department had record numbers for pre-consultation meetings and development permit application submissions. To date, 2020 has surpassed the statistics for the same period last year. The first four months of 2020 has shown a 43 percent increase over the 2019 activities and a 60 percent increase over that for 2018. The Building Department has already processed as many applications for new residential construction in the first part of 2020 than all of 2018.
Dwyer has an interesting mix of municipal experience as both a former Director of Planning for the Town of Mississippi Mills and as a current councillor for the Town of Smiths Falls.
“Carleton Place is well known in the area for their rate of growth and I am excited to be a part of how that shapes the community for future generations,” says Dwyer.
In addition to reviewing a record number of Development Permit applications, the town is working toward a new Official Plan and a Development Permit By-law Review. The Interim Control By-law will also need to be finalized for the mature core area of town.
“Thanks to her experience, Niki will be able to hit the ground running to oversee these projects and will be a great complement to the already professional staff the town has within the Development Services Department,” says Diane Smithson, Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Carleton Place.