The Town of Bridgewater hosted its first public meeting on the South Shore Centre redevelopment that is being pursued by the building owners last week.

On Friday the first Public Feedback session took place and town planner Mackenzie Childs says it’s was a productive event. “We had over 50 people in attendance which is a lot for these types of meetings, many were in favour and then some raised valid concerns,”

The primary concerns Childs says were raised were around the issues of flooding, ice jams, and traffic.

“In order for a development permit to be granted (which has yet to be done) we need to have studies on those things, so the developers are now working on those reports on flooding and traffic impacts, as well as looking into the infrastructure needs of the project (primarily wastewater),”.

Assuming there are no major delays with the various studies the developers need to do before applying for a development permit, they are expected to be completed over the next few months, after which they can return to council and attempt to proceed with their project.

As it stands Town Council has instructed staff to begin work on the necessary development amendments that would be required for the project to move forward, however, they are not bound to approve those amendments once complete.

The Town of Bridgewater will be hosting more public information sessions on the project in the coming months.