Clarifications for New Planning Documents

As we move toward the Public Hearing for the new Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-law (November 25, 2019 at 7:00 pm at Forest Heights Community School), we have heard many questions and some concerns over the new regulations. Council and staff want you to understand the potential changes to your communities so you can provide comments and suggestions, but it is important that the information you receive is accurate.

We are often asked why is any of this needed? Things have worked fine in the past and we don’t need more regulations or rules, this is a RURAL area! In general, we agree that the Municipality is in a good position. BUT, we do regularly get calls and hear concerns about particular issues, such as water quality protection. The purpose of reviewing and re-writing the Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-law is to update the documents and to develop them as a tool that will address some of these valid areas of concern. For many of you, the new planning documents will not have much, if any, impact on your day-to-day use of your own property.

Every resident and property within the Municipality is already in a zoned area. The new plan is not expanding zoning to areas that are un-zoned. While some zones could be changed, we have heard comments that this plan is an expansion of the zoned area, which is a misconception. All parts of the Municipality have zoning and regulations for development which have been in place since 2004. The reVISION Plan Review is a required update to the existing planning documents and an excellent opportunity to address some of the concerns raised by residents over the last 15 years.

If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to the Community Development Department or your Councillor. We will go through the information with you, describe any proposed zoning for your area, and talk to you about it.