The policy planner for the Town of Essex believes more needs to be done to spark development in Harrow.
Jeff Watson says there's great opportunity in the hamlet, but it's not advertised enough.
Watson is calling on the town to hire a marketing professional to develop a game plan to better sell the area to potential developers. He says there's a need for housing in Harrow.
"In some respects Harrow is kind of the forgotten community," says Watson. "The perception is that people are leaving Harrow. There's no demand, but we're finding there's a very good, latent demand in terms of young families and in terms of seniors who are looking for accommodation outside of what they have today, more modest and more modern, up to date housing."
Watson says once the ball gets rolling he's confident development will continue.
"We're looking for that first builder. The fellow who is going to take the chance," says Watson. "The problem with that of course is that we haven't got that first builder yet and I think one of the issues is we have to sell Harrow. We have to sort of show them that there is a market and we have to do that by basically gathering the facts, the information that they need."
Watson plans to bring up the issue during the town's 2017 budget deliberations.