Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutDTS-10-054 - Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands Study I~rTCx~~R Development & Techrr~ca~ Services REPORT T0: Development & Technical Services Committee DATE OF MEETING: March 8, 2010 SUBMITTED BY: Alain Pinard, Interim Director of Planning PREPARED BY: Tina Malone-Wright, Senior Planner (519-741-2765) WARD(S) INVOLVED: All DATE OF REPORT: February 24, 2010 REPORT NO.: DTS-10-054 SUBJECT: COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF EMPLOYMENT LANDS RECOMMENDATION: That the Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands Study, dated February 24, 2010, attached to DTS Report DTS-10-054, be adopted and considered fulfillment of the City of Kitchener's obligations pursuant to Policy 2.2.6.5 of the Province of Ontario's Places to Grow Growth Plan; and further, That Recommendations 1 to 8 of the Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands Study, dated February 24, 2010, provide direction for the City of Kitchener on future Official Plan matters concerning employment lands. BACKGROUND: The City of Kitchener is provincially mandated by Policy 2.2.6.5 of the Places to Grow Growth Plan to complete a comprehensive review of its employment areas. The purpose of the review is to ensure that the City has sufficient lands to meet long term employment needs, to protect prime employment lands and to allow for conversion of employment areas to non-employment uses where appropriate. This Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands Study will provide policy direction to the City's Official Plan review which is currently underway. It is expected that the recommendations and next steps proposed by the study will be implemented in the new Official Plan which is proposed to be completed by June 2011. iz - i REPORT: Kitchener's Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands considered all those lands that are designated in the City's Official Plan as `Heavy Industrial', `General Industrial', Business Park', `Municipal Services and Public Utilities' and `Mixed Industrial-Residential'. The Provincial Policy Statement defines an employment area as follows: "means those areas designated in an official plan for clusters of business and economic activities including, but not limited to manufacturing, warehousing, offices, and associated retail and ancillary facilities." The Province of Ontario's Projection Methodology Guidelines recommends that the following Census categories be added together to derive employment. They are: • Manufacturing Construction • Transportation and Warehousing • Wholesale Trade Communications/Utilities Although the definition of an employment area includes office uses, major offices which are defined as freestanding buildings of 10,000 m2 or greater or with 500 jobs or more, should be located in urban growth centres, major transit station areas or areas with existing frequent transit service or existing or planned higher order transit service. The types of office use that would locate in employment areas would be offices accessory to the main industrial use of the property or offices associated with a population related employment use. Employment lands jobs is a relatively new term which refers to jobs that have traditionally been called `industrial' jobs and are found in specifically designated industrial lands, business parks and related areas. These areas have come to be referred to as an employment area as opposed to industrial lands because of the breadth of other uses that now tend to locate within these areas. The Stud As noted earlier, the purpose of the review was to ensure that the City has sufficient lands to meet long term employment needs, to protect prime employment lands and to allow for conversion of employment areas to non-employment uses where appropriate. Planning Staff, which led the project, formed a working group composed of staff from Planning and Economic Development to review an inventory of just over 1500 parcels of land that were designated or being used for industrial uses. The working group categorized the industrial designated parcels of land based on criteria and determined which lands should be retained and protected for employment (industrial) uses. The working group also considered those designated lands that were located in an Urban Growth Centre, in the area of a proposed Major Transit Station Area or in areas of further study (Fischer Hallman Study) and excluded these lands from the industrial inventory. Kitchener's Economic Development staff were able to provide employment projections by sector of employment to assist with determining what our need for employment lands would be to 2029. 12-2 After reviewing the inventory of employment lands, the projections prepared by Kitchener's Economic Development Staff, and considering the employment target in the Regional Official Plan, it has been determined that the City of Kitchener has sufficient employment (industrial) lands to meet the projected number of jobs in those employment sectors to 2029. This conclusion is based on the assumption that the protected employment lands identified in the Study remain protected from redesignation to non-industrial employment or residential uses. It should be recognized that there will be limited opportunities to designate new employment lands. While we have enough employment lands to meet the projections to 2029, we do have to ensure and plan to have enough employment lands beyond the next 20 years. It is intended that the Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands will be updated every 5 years in support of future official plan updates and to provide fora 20 year timeframe for employment projections on an ongoing basis. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: No direct capital financial implications to the City. COMMUNICATIONS: Planning Staff introduced the Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands Study to the Economic Development Advisory Committee on November 25, 2009 and presented a draft of the study and preliminary results to the Economic Development Advisory Committee on January 27, 2010. The study was accepted by the Committee and the Committee wanted to ensure that there were sufficient lands to meet the employment projections to 2029. New official plan policy and land use designations as they relate to employment lands will be reviewed by the public during the consultation process that will be held to review the City's new Official Plan. ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Jeff Willmer, Interim General Manager Development and Technical Services Department List of Attachments Comprehensive Review of Employment Lands Study http:/lwww.kitchener.calofficialplan/#su~porting 12-3