La Broquerie is planning for the future.

Andrei Friesen with Landmark Planning and Design says they are in the process of reviewing the development plan for La Broquerie. An open house was held on Thursday and Friesen says the open house was an opportunity to engage with the community to gain feedback on what's working, why they like living in the area, and what they would like to see going forward.

He notes he heard a lot of positive comments, "we heard a lot of great things about why people like living here. They're interested in where development is going to take place in the future, questions about balancing development with existing livestock operations, and just a lot of interest about providing different types of housing to accommodate different age groups."

Freiesen says with the kind of growth La Broquerie is currently experiencing a development plan review is held about every five years, as in accordance with the Manitoba Planning Act, and the last review was completed in 2011. He notes there were a lot of good things in the 2011 plan so this review will be a refresh versus a complete overhaul.

"We're working on a background study right now that takes all this information into account. We then use the background study to from the actual draft development plan that we'll be working on over the next couple of weeks and months."

He says the development plan helsp to shape how a community looks and feels both now and into the future.

"[The municipality] will use the information related to land use policy, where they want to see investments take place. Those investments could be private investments in actual land development or investments in community infrastructure. It's quite holistic and we take a lot of information and really focus it to create a plan. It's always trying to perch your gaze above the horizon, look into the future when you don't know exactly what it's going to hold, and then make the right decisions to get there."

Friesen says they will continue to work with the municipality's council and administration over the next few months to finalize the development plan.