Four ideas for our city’s long-delayed official plan
The official plan is the City of Peterborough’s preeminent land use and policy document. Its purpose is to set out the long term vision for the city’s development and growth. In legislative terms, it serves to guide city council in its day-to-day deliberations, thereby protecting residents and investors by constraining council from arbitrary decision making.
The city’s official plan has been a work in stuttering progress for decades. Provincial law requires that it be updated ten years after it first comes into effect and every five years thereafter. Peterborough’s official plan hasn’t had a completed comprehensive review in 36 years. Although there have been seven official plan reviews of specific land uses such as commercial, residential and open space, there is no substitute for a fully comprehensive review in which all issues are strategically weighed against all others. In order to move forward on the file and give the work a new sense of urgency, city council approved additional funding of $200,000 for new city planning staff this April.
As the plan emerges this year and next, a central focus must be the economic future of a community shedding its outmoded manufacturing base. It will also include the traditional grab bag of content such as land use regulation, commercial and industrial development, roads and transportation, infrastructure, social services, neighbourhood services, housing supply and affordability, parks and recreation, arts and culture, environmental sustainability, the downtown core, urban design and soon. A new plan will also restore the relevance of the document by incorporating a number of approved city policies that have jumped out in front of it. The Comprehensive Transportation Plan, the Municipal Cultural Plan, the Sustainable Peterborough Plan, the Climate Change Action Plan, the Urban Forest Strategic Plan and others have all gained validity and momentum outside of the current official plan, effectively weakening its status. All of this is welcome and commendable. So too are four additional areas of inquiry I believe would add substantially to a new official plan.
First, we need some clarity on whether commercial protectionism is necessary for the downtown. We currently have policies that discourage certain commercial and institutional uses in suburban locations, forcing them to locate downtown. Staff and council have both poked holes in the policy to meet the interests of individual suburban developers, creating confusion and uncertainty. This is an indication of a wobbly policy that requires reassessment.
Second, it is important to take advantage of our status as a waterfront city. Long term strategies for more waterfront land acquisition; bridge beautification; vegetation management to create more water views; and the urbanization and development of Jackson Creek in the downtown could combine to create a useful and innovative water initiative.
Third, it is timely to devise policy for the retention, repurposing or redevelopment of church/faith properties. There are many congregations struggling to maintain heritage buildings on large parcels of land. They are doing so in a policy vacuum and a clear statement of city intent and incentive would be welcome.
Finally, the city could benefit from a precise policy on how the plan is to be monitored and updated, so that it maintains its relevancy. A key part of that should be extensive policies on the importance and the practice of community consultation and engagement for all development activities in the city. Earlier this month, the city invited people to take part in an online official plan survey. It is available until Sept. 20 at https://ptboofficialplan. metroquest.ca. The new official plan is proposed for completion by staff a year from then, one month before the 2018 municipal election.