City’s Official Plan update on track

Peterborough’s Official Plan will be updated before year’s end, providing a clearer path for the direction of the city.

“We’re feeling pretty good about the status of the Official Plan,” city planning director Jeffrey Humble said.

If all goes according to plan, “adoption before the end of the year will not be a problem.”

On Monday, the city’s finance committee heard from Humble about the status of the Official Plan update.

The Official Plan is one of the city’s most important documents, providing a plan for the city’s growth, including residential development, transportation and more. Originally planned to be completed in 2018, last February it was pushed into this year due to both the provincial and municipal elections.

According to Humble, the Official Plan update will likely be adopted after the summer, and dialogue needs to take place with members of upper levels of government about growth targets in the meantime.

The Places to Grow Act is one piece of provincial legislation which has directed residential growth to urban nodes, essentially focusing growth upwards rather than outwards via subdivisions.

While the province has not made any announcements about the future of that piece of legislation, it has indicated it wants to make it easier for developers to get their projects going.

A third draft of the update is being circulated internally at City Hall, notes Humble, but more work needs to be done before it can be made public.

In other business at budget talks on Monday night, Coun. Lesley Parnell said it’s a priority for this council to annex land from Cavan Monaghan Township — if only so the city can own Peterborough Airport.

She reminded council that although the city has invested heavily in developing the municipally-owned airport, the township reaps the taxes.