The Bruce County Official Plan is getting reviewed this year.
County staff was able to update council at a recent meeting.
The Manager of Land Use Planning, Jack van Dorp, helped provide the update to council, saying “Currently staff [is] working with our local municipal partners to review the draft agriculture mapping, to make sure that we’ve … got it as close to right as we can get it and we’re ready to engage more broadly with the public. ”
He says that the next step will be to get input for the natural legacy mapping, where the staff will be consulting with Saugeen Ojibway Nation as well as lower-tier municipalities.
There were also concerns raised by members of council regarding the Ontario government trying to review the Provincial Policy Statement, and how it could delay or otherwise interfere.
Director of Planning Claire Dodd says that “We know the province is underway with their review of the PPS and the Places to Grow Act… That said, we did hear very clearly …that there’s very much interest, and I think it’s time to move this Official Plan forward.”
She said that the need for an updated Official Plan was too great to wait and then react to what the province would come up with.
Dodd says that they want to develop the new directive and then adjust to the provincial plans later.
She adds that “Our interest is making as much progress as possible, at least until we find out some sort of additional news from the province. I think it’s important to move things ahead… I think [the work] will be valuable, even if we do run into the situation when we need to stop and reflect with provincial changes.”
The project lead from WSP Canada, Robert Rappolt, presented to the council an estimated timeline for the next several months to develop an updated Official Plan:
March:
– Council Workshop
– Agriculture and Hamlet Mapping
April:
– Municipal consultation
– Natural Legacy Mapping
May-June:
– Release of Draft Official Plan
– Presentation(s) to Council
July:
– Regional Public Open Houses
– Presentations to Council
August-September:
– Statutory Public Meeting
– Council Adoption
