Heather Wright/The Independent

A road network is about to spring up in Forest’s new Industrial Park.

Lambton Shores has been working on creating the shovel-ready industrial area on about 60 acres of land along Highway 21 and Enterprise Road.

Chief Administrative Officer Steve McAuley showed Lambton Shores councillors July 14 a plan for up to 24 building lots.

“We’ve worked with Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership – they’ve come in and helped us with ideas on what they are being asked for in terms of land, and are fully supportive of what we’re presenting here as fully serviced industrial land,” says McAuley.

SLEP’s CEO has promoted the idea of fully-serviced land to attract more industrial customers across Lambton County.

The Forest Industrial Park is laid out in blocks instead of lots, McAuley said, giving prospective buyers more flexibility.

“If a customer comes to us and says ‘we need five acres’…we can find five acres and carve it out for them.

“We are going to be able to sell these properties without the need for their own small stormwater management ponds, basically we’ll have water, sewage, stormwater, hydro, and telecommunications available at the doorstep.

“I think this moves the project really to a spot where we can start to market hard and potentially sell lots,” he added.

First, the municipality has to go through the planning approvals process. McAuley says the land is zoned industrial however staff would like to offer industrial/commercial land along the highway for businesses such as car dealerships or lumber yards.

Lambton Shores staff will work with county planners to circulate the plans showing the road network to the community for comment.

It’s not clear when the information will come back to council for a decision on the zoning.