|
|
 |
--> Jump to Notices/Events/Meetings
WHAT IS AN OFFICIAL PLAN?
An official plan describes your local council's policies on how land
in your community should be used. It is prepared with input from you and
your fellow citizens and helps ensure that future planning and development
will meet the specific needs of your community.
An official plan deals mainly with issues such as:
- where new housing, industry , offices and shops will go
- what services like roads, watermains, sewers, parks and schools will
be needed
- when and in what order parts of your community will grow
OFFICIAL PLAN 5-YEAR REVIEW
Section 26 of the Planning Act requires that official plans be reviewed at least once every five years.
The County has hired Marshall Macklin Monaghan Limited to undertake this Official Plan review. The County has identified a host of issues to be addressed through the update process.
These issues range from minor technical updates to significant and substantial changes in how the County manages growth and development. The need to address a host of issues through the update process include the following, in no particular order:
- Ensuring that the Official Plan conforms with Provincial policy documents, such as the new Provincial Policy Statement and the proposed Places to Grow document;
- Reviewing the County's commercial designation structure to investigate opportunities to plan for mixed use business corridors and areas;
- Reviewing the County's industrial designations to study opportunities to provide for mixed use employment areas subject to land use compatibility criteria and servicing availability;
- Working with the Grand River Conservation Authority to identify approaches to balance the revitalization of downtown Paris in a manner that maintains its unique character and sense of place with the environmental and flooding concerns associated with the Grand River, a significant natural heritage feature;
- Reviewing the County's existing agricultural policies and adding new policies in conformity with the Provincial guidelines to address the protection of ground water resources, such as source water protection and wellhead protection;
- Promoting healthy communities through supportive policies to encourage active lifestyles and alternative means of transportation such as walking;
- Addressing the need to appropriately service areas serviced by partial municipal services, in keeping with the policy direction of the new Provincial Policy Statement;
- Developing policy solutions to balance growth within settlement area boundaries with the provision of County infrastructure, in a manner that provides for residential and industrial development;
- Identifying affordable housing needs in the community and creating policy approaches to ensure its provision;
- Reviewing and streamlining the Settlement Residential policies to provide a more user friendly and understandable policy framework;
- Providing a policy framework to address transportation infrastructure and abandoned rail lines and their reintegration into the community;
- Updating of natural environment policies as they relate to flood plains;
- Reviewing a host of administrative issues such as parkland dedication and cash in lieu of parkland, in order to develop policies to provide an appropriate framework to address their implementation;
- Ensuring compatibility between the County's economic development and land use policies;
- Amending definitions, study requirement criteria, and schedules to ensure that they are current and will remain applicable within the context of the updated Official Plan; and
- Identifying and investigating other issues raised by local Councilors, County staff, commenting agencies, local stakeholders and residents, and updating the Official Plan to ensure it reflects the values of the community.
Draft Official Plan:
Official Plan - Final Draft - Adopted by Council- Text Only
Official Plan - September 2010, Final Draft - Maps
Current Official Plan
Current OP and all schedules.
Workplan:
Official Plan Review Schedule
Notices/Events/Meetings:
Provincial Comments:
Provincial Comments
(Please note that these comments refer to an earlier draft of the Official Plan)
Contact Us:
Please forward Official Plan Review comments to:
Mark Pomponi, Gen. Mgr. of Development Services
County of Brant
66 Grand River Street North,
Paris, Ontario N3L 2M2
Or via email
|
|
