The Township of Hamilton comprises eight settlement areas within a largely rural municipality, which are proximate to the urban communities of Cobourg, Port Hope, and Peterborough. Bewdley, Gore’s Landing, and Harwood are the Township’s ‘northern’ settlement areas on Rice Lake.
This Master Plan involved conducting needs assessments of programs and events, facilities, parks, leisure activities, and the recreation service delivery system.
Some of the context-specific factors considered in developing the plan include:
a number of legacy settlement areas, with which residents identify, in a rural setting
dispersed population over a large geographic area
historic reliance on local volunteer groups that own and/or operate legacy community halls and parks
a municipal role that is limited, or largely limited, to facilitating others in recreation programming
proximity to larger urban areas to which community residents travel to access regional-serving recreation facilities and programs.
The implementation strategy for this plan contains 79 recommendations: 11 for programs and events, 21 for facilities, 21 for parks and trails and 26 pertaining to service delivery. Each recommendation is costed and forecasted as immediate, short, medium or long term over the 10-year term of the Plan.
Through the master planning process it was recognized that the community’s demographics are changing, resulting in a shift in the types of activities residents are and will be engaging in the future.
