Justin Zegers, Lincoln, Ward 1

During my younger years I had the pleasure of growing up in a rural area, close to a small town. As a young adult, I moved and spent a handful of years living in the Mississauga, Brampton area. This has given me great insight into the pros and cons of both rural and city living. With these experiences in mind and knowing Lincoln on track to keep on growing year over year, we need to ensure that development plans are well thought with input from residents, but more importantly from developer experts. Plans need to have ease of traffic flow and an emphasis on pedestrian traffic. With this in mind we also need to look at making Lincoln a desirable place for business. By drawing in commercial and office businesses and integrating them with residential, as mixed zoning this would make pedestrian traffic more desirable. At the same time, we still need to work on retaining the farmers and wineries that make Lincoln such an iconic town, at the same time we need to look at bringing in some industrial type businesses that offer sustainable, long term economic growth for both the town of Lincoln and the Niagara Region.

With a growing town comes larger town issues, increased risk of criminal activity, increased need for some social programs, and the need to ensure that the sense and feeling of community and oneness stays intact. While there is no quick solution by leveraging local and regional assets we can tackle these three things and more before they become issues.

Five years ago, at the age of 22, my wife and I bought a home in Lincoln with the intent and desire to raise, now two kids, our family. It is with these things I mentioned above in the forefront of my mind that I am running for office. It is with these things in mind that I hope to be elected so that I can be a part of continuing to make Lincoln a desirable place to live and raise a family.