New plan will guide Swift Current development for next 25 years

The City of Swift Current has completed the process to create a new official community plan to guide development and growth decisions over the next 25 years.

There was a formal presentation about the new plan at a regular council meeting on April 8 and councillors approved a notice of motion to advise the public of their intent to adopt the new official community plan.

This plan provides a broad policy framework to assist decision-makers when they consider future planning in the city.

“It’s like the planning bible for this community,” City General Manager Planning and Development Michael Ruus said after the meeting. “The province sets out the framework for land use planning within Saskatchewan and it's up to each individual municipality to adopt their own official community plan, which basically sets out the rules of the road for the next 25 years of growth. This document really outlines all the policy that we need to be following to move forward in that 25year period and creates tools for us to use in the implementation of that plan.”

The new community plan will replace the previous Swift Current Development Plan, which was adopted in 2003. Since then the provincial planning legislation has been updated, including the Planning and Development Act.

“So there were some cases of policies not necessarily being in line with the provincial direction, which we’re required to be,” he explained. “

That was the real impetus to get this project going, because as the entire community has experienced, this has been a long process to get this completely updated.”

The process to create a new community plan was started in 2015 and there were five main events to engage community members and local organizations. There was a community visioning and feedback activity at Market Square, community stakeholder sessions and public open houses, an event with the Swift Current & District Chamber of Commerce, as well as consultation with the rural municipality.

The City zoning bylaw will be the main method to implement the objectives and policies in the new community plan. City administration will therefore prepare zoning and bylaw amendments to implement the land use strategy, and there will also be public consultation during this process.

“The next step would be finishing up the zoning bylaw, which will happen over 2019, and that’s the main implementation tool,” he said. “There will be quite a bit of public engagement to talk about some of the new land use regulations, which will directly impact property owners within the city.”

The new community plan provides guidance with regard to future land use, the management of infrastructure capacity and the protection of sensitive land and environmental resources. An important benefit of the plan is the clarity it provides for residents on future development goals.

“For some property owners there could be some impacts,” he said. “We’ve outlined specific areas for additional study with some the environmental concerns and so on, but really what this document does is create a transparent process for development moving forward. So any property owner in the city that’s going to invest, as we encourage them to do, they know exactly what they’re getting into. They know where those hazardous areas are, where there’s safety concerns, and so they can minimize any impact on the risk they’re taking when they’re investing in this community. And we want to make those processes as easy as possible for businesses to continue flourish in Swift Current.”

The new community plan includes various maps to indicate future land use, areas for development phasing and infill, areas that are subject to development constraints, and environmentally sensitive areas.

The environmental sensitivity map indicates the location of wetlands, floodplains, waterbodies, sensitive uplands, and Ministry of Environment wildlife habitat.

“It hadn’t been identified previously, but it was built into the overall framework,” he said. “Our intent here was to make it more transparent with it actually in the document, where property owners know exactly where those areas are moving forward rather than investing and finding out some of these things down the line.”

Future growth beyond the existing city boundaries will require additional land that are currently located within the R.M. of Swift Current. The community plan therefore includes guidelines with regard to regional cooperation and partnerships.

“Our plan here is a made-in-Swift-Current approach to development and our approach to economic development in the broader sense has always been regional,” he noted. “We fully recognize that the city is successful when the region is seeing investment, whether that’s in the R.M. of Swift Current, in the southwest region of Saskatchewan, or within the city’s boundaries itself, and the surrounding region usually also benefits when we see investment in this community within the city of Swift Current.”

He urged residents to take a look at the new official community plan, because it provides a road map for the next 25 years.

“So I would encourage everybody to come into City Hall and take a look,” he said. “It will be available online. And be involved in the process with the implementation of our new zoning bylaw over the course of this year. That will be the big tool that will help guide some of the policies in this document today.”

Ruus attended his final council meeting on April 8. He has accepted a new career opportunity with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia. He was pleased with the efforts of the planning team to engage the community on projects, which included the completion of the downtown master plan and the new official community plan.

“We had hundreds of stakeholders provide input into the official community plan and the downtown master plan,” he said. “There’s still input being put into the recreation, park, and culture plan, and that's going to be the legacy that all of us today leave for future generations and for the betterment of this community. So absolutely I’m very pleased about what our team has been able to accomplish in the last six years that I’ve been at the City. I’ve really enjoyed my time here. I can’t speak highly enough about this community.”