HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-11-075 - First Draft of the City of Kitchener New Official~Tt~n>~~T~~
REPORT TO:
Staff Re opt
CommunrtySer~ices Department
DATE OF MEETING:
SUBMITTED BY:
PREPARED BY:
WARD(S) INVOLVED:
DATE OF REPORT:
REPORT NO.:
SUBJECT:
RECOMMENDATION:
Planning & Strategic Initiatives Committee
www.kitchenerca
June 20, 2011
Alain Pinard, Director of Planning - 519-741-2319
Tina Malone-Wright, Senior Planner - 519-741-2765
All Wards
June 9, 2011
CSD-11-075
FIRST DRAFT OF THE CITY OF KITCHENER
NEW OFFICIAL PLAN
That the first draft of the new Official Plan for the City of Kitchener attached as Appendix
`A' to Report CSD-11-075 be received; and
That the draft of the new Official Plan be made available to the community for their
review and comment and that staff continue to engage in public consultation of the draft
Official Plan; and further
That staff report on the public consultation comments and provide recommendations for
next steps in the Official Plan Review process in November 2011.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Since 2009 Planning staff have been working on a draft of the City's new Official Plan. This
document requires updating in response to new provincial legislation and policy along with new
regional policy. After months of background projects and master plans, a first draft of the City's
new Official Plan is now ready for public consultation.
BACKGROUND:
This report follows up on the March 8, 2010 public meeting to officially launch the Official Plan
Review Project and on the March 7, 2011 Official Plan presentation at a special Council
Strategy Session.
REPORT:
The Kitchener Official Plan was adopted by City Council in 1994 and approved by the Region in
1995. Every 5 years, a municipality is required by the Province of Ontario to review their Official
Plans. As a result, in 2000 Council directed staff to prepare a review of our Official Plan. After
beginning to review the Plan, Planning staff were advised that there were significant changes
pending in planning legislation and policy, both at the provincial and regional level. Given the
magnitude of the changes, a full review was put on hold (except for comprehensive new
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commercial polices in 2001 and housekeeping amendments). These changes resulted in the
preparation and approval of the first Regional Growth Management Strategy (2003), the new
Provincial Policy Statement (2005), the provincial Places to Grow Act (2005) and Growth Plan
for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2006), changes to the Planning Act through Bill 51 (Royal
Assent in 2006, in effect January 2007) and the new Regional Official Plan (2009).
In the summer of 2009 Planning staff officially began a comprehensive review to develop a new
Official Plan to guide planning and development for the next planning horizon to 2029. Since
that time the City has completed numerous Background Studies and Master Plans in support of
the new Official Plan such as the Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands (CREL), the
Comprehensive Review of Intensification Areas (CRIA), the Green Development Policies Study,
the Trails Master Plan, the Cycling Master Plan and the Parks Master Plan. These studies and
plans have given direction to prepare new and revised policies in the City's Official Plan.
Currently, our Municipal Plan is the Official Plan for the City of Kitchener under the Ontario
Planning Act. An Official Plan coordinates the planning and development of the community for
the next 20 years. Although an Official Plan is concerned mainly with land use and the physical
development of the city, the policy decisions and implementation may have an influence on the
social, cultural, economic, and environmental interests of the community.
Over the past many months, Planning Staff has been reviewing the policies in the current
Official Plan and drafting new policies based on new provincial and regional policies and
recommendations arising from the Background Studies and Master Plans. A first preliminary
draft of the new Official Plan is now ready for initial review.
An Official Plan is required to focus on land use policies and it will continue to pursue areas of
policy that this community has embraced for decades. This includes directives for a built form
that has nodes and corridors, mixed use, and a continued focus on downtown. The new draft of
the Official Plan continues to contain objectives and policies to manage Kitchener's future
growth, guide how land can be used and ensure the timely provision and adequacy of services.
The new Official Plan also refines our planning actions with respect to conserving the natural
environment (the Natural Heritage System), improved transportation demand management,
urban design and conservation of cultural heritage resources. In addition to supporting transit
and intensification objectives, the direction in the new Plan is to ensure Kitchener continues to
develop as a complete and healthy community. Some of the highlights of the new Official Plan
include:
• Aland use vision and goals that reflect our strategic documents and the community's
visioning;
• The desire to comprehensively manage our growth;
• An evolved city structure based on a hierarchy of nodes and corridors linked by transit
and the focus of intensification;
• Policies to support a healthy Kitchener with emphasis on an integrated transportation
system, walkability and locating mixed use areas, commercial, institutional and
employments lands in close proximity to where residents live;
• Increased emphasis on protecting lands for industrial employment;
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A continued recognition of the importance of the City's Natural Heritage features, Energy
Conservation and Green Development, Cultural Heritage resources, a high quality of
Urban Design and Arts and Culture in our community.
The first draft of the new Official Plan requires additional refinement. For example, the
transportation system policies would benefit from the completion of the City's Transportation
Master Plan. The intent is to incorporate new transportation policies into the next draft of the
new Official Plan.
Generally the next steps of the Official Plan project are:
Task Timin
Presentation and "tabling" of the first public draft Official Plan at June 20, 2011
Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee
Initial public review phase June 21, 2011 to
September 28, 2011
Prepare a "Response to Comments" Report and make revisions to October 2011
first public draft where appropriate
Public meeting regarding the Official Plan. The staff report may November 2011
discuss major comments and issues that have been received
through the initial public review phase and will recommend a
course of action regarding adoption by Council dependent upon
the Regional Official Plan appeals.
A further public meeting will be held to consider the adoption of a new Official Plan. This will
occur once direction is known regarding the Region's Official Plan. Once adopted by Council,
the City will submit the new Official Plan to the Region of Waterloo for approval. The Region as
an upper tier municipality has delegated approval authority from the Province to approve local
municipal Official Plans within its jurisdiction. The Region may approve, approve as modified, or
refuse to approve all or parts of the Official Plan and give a notice of decision. A person or a
public body may appeal (subject to appeal rights) the Region's decision to the Ontario Municipal
Board within the 20-day appeal period. If there is no appeal, the official plan comes into effect
on the day after the appeal period expires.
It is intended that the new Official Plan will repeal and replace the City's existing Official Plan, as
amended. Until the new Official Plan is approved by the Region of Waterloo, the existing Official
Plan is in place and in effect.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
The Official Plan Review Project and the first draft of Kitchener's new Official Plan align with the
City of Kitchener Strategic Plan in many ways. The draft of the new Official Plan incorporates
the Community Vision in Part One of the Plan and all the goals, objectives and policies support
and align with all of the 6 community priorities in the Strategic Plan.
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FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no new capital budget implications as part of this report. The Official Plan will require
coordination of land use planning with infrastructure provision and services. The new Official
Plan is being prepared in house with minimal funds used to date from the Planning Studies -
Development Charges and Planning Studies -Capital accounts.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Community engagement of the Official Plan is mandated and regulated by the Ontario Planning
Act; however, Planning staff are also utilizing the `inform' and `collaborate' themes from the
Community Engagement Strategy to further augment the public process for this project.
Typically, a municipality will take several years to complete a review of its Official Plan. The
timing to complete the subprojects and complete a review of the Kitchener Official Plan by June
2011 was aggressive but necessary given the deadlines in the Provinces Places to Grow
Growth Plan and the Regional Official Plan to update our Official Plan. The local community and
stakeholders have been consulted on visioning and numerous master planning efforts in the
past several years (e.g. Plan for a Healthy Kitchener, Strategic Plan for the Environment
Update, etc.). In addition, there has been considerable public involvement in several of the
master plans, including the Parks Master Plan, the Trails Master Plan and the Cycling Master
Plan. The recommendations from many of these community-based projects have been
considered in developing revised land use policies for the new Official Plan.
The Ontario Planning Act requires a municipality to hold a public meeting to confirm the need to
review the Official Plan. This meeting is also an opportunity to hear from the community at a
relatively early stage in the Official Plan Review process to ensure all major items are
considered. This public meeting was held on March 8, 2010. Notice of this meeting was
advertised in The Record, the Kitchener Citizen and the Community News. At that meeting
Council heard presentations from 3 delegations regarding, community gardens, excess parking
requirements, the need to integrate land use planning with transportation and the environmental
significance of lands and the human impact as the City moves forward with new Official Plan
policies.
On March 7, 2011, Planning staff presented and discussed the new Official Plan project at a
Council Strategy Session. Presentations and discussions were held with each of the City's
Advisory Committees in March and April. Preliminary feedback from these groups helped inform
the preparation of the draft policies. Further input from the Advisory Committees is expected
during the public review phase.
Notice of the June 20, 2011 meeting of the Planning and Strategic Services Committee meeting
to present the draft of the City's new Official Plan was given through the Official Plan Review
Newsletter #2 to a broad range of individuals including those on the project circulation list. The
Official Plan project also has a dedicated webpage and email address. Comments and feedback
can be submitted to OfficialPlan(c~kitchener.ca. The Official Plan project is now entering Phase
3 of the project's Communications Plan.
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The tabling of the draft new Official Plan at the June 20th Planning and Strategic Initiatives
Committee will introduce the draft document to the public and start the initial review phase. It is
anticipated that this review of the first draft will continue until the end of September. Planning
staff will then review the comments and prepare a response document. There may be additional
public forums and/or open houses in the fall of 2011 to provide more information and/or address
specific issues that may arise through the review.
At such time as a public meeting is scheduled to consider adoption of the City's new Official
Plan, notice of the public meeting will be given in The Record in accordance with the regulations
in the Planning Act. Planning Staff will also circulate notice of the public meeting to all those on
the project and newsletter circulation list.
CONCLUSION:
The draft of the City's new Official Plan is an accumulation of many background projects and
master plans and incorporates much of the visioning and master planning that has already
taken place through other major City of Kitchener initiatives.
Planning staff look forward to public consultation on the new document as this new Official Plan
will guide planning and development for the next planning horizon to 2029. The vision of the
new Official Plan is to ensure that the City of Kitchener is a complete and healthy community.
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR AND REVIEWED BY:
Brandon Sloan, Manager, Long Range and Policy Planning
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Jeff Willmer, Deputy CAO
Communit Services De artment
ATTACHMENTS:
(can be accessed at: http://www.kitchener.ca/en/insidecityhall/Official Plan Review.asp)
Appendix `A' - City of Kitchener Draft Official Plan
`A Complete and Healthy Kitchener'; dated June 20, 2011.
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