The results are in from the survey around the next North Cowichan Official Community Plan.
There were three options up for public input on how the municipality should decide to grow over the next twenty years.
911 survey responses show a preference for focused growth over business as usual and multi centred growth.
The 46-percent of those who responded focused growth, say they would prefer the municipality focus on growing more in less areas of the region, as opposed to less in many different city centres and a more evenly distributed approach.
The focused growth strategy looks at high growth in the University Village local area, the Berkey’s Corner neighborhood, the shopping centre area at Drinkwater Road and the TransCanada Highway, and the Crofton and Chemainus core areas.
The report says the benefits of this strategy are that it creates better conditions for the environment. It says the strategy enables the protection of many rural and natural lands from development and that the higher density of development will help make people in those areas less reliant on cars for transportation, which should lessen emissions.
The responses were relatively evenly received from all different areas of the municipality, with Quamichan leading the way with 20-percent of respondents and the South End bringing up the rear with 6-percent of respondents.
Age-wise, respondents trended towards the older end of the spectrum, with 69-percent of those surveyed being over fifty years old.
The report is headed to a committee of the whole meeting at the municipality tomorrow to discuss the results further and decide how to move forward.
