Dec 7, 2023
This week, Urban Planning Committee received Administration's report on the District Planning initiative—a crucial milestone that determined whether the project would remain on track for a Spring 2024 public hearing date.
30 members of the public registered to speak. In its presentation, IDEA emphasized the need for additional work on map readability, policy direction for mid-rise development outside nodes and corridors, and removing hard line boundaries on nodes and corridors.
IDEA believed that the initiative would benefit from further engagement with stakeholder groups but left it to Council’s discretion as to whether this would delay the project or whether further input could be provided through advise-level engagement.
Following deliberation, a motion was approved by Committee directing the Administration to take the following actions:
Adjust the organization of the District Plan to maximize accessibility
Remove Local Node identifiers on Maps 6 and 7 of the plans
Remove hard line boundaries from the nodes and corridors
It was confirmed that these deliverables could be met without delaying the project, therefore District Plans will not go back to Urban Planning Committee and instead move ahead to a public hearing in the spring.
IDEA supports the clarity that this motion will deliver, Administration has also indicated that map readability is a priority and will be improved.
IDEA will continue to advocate for clearer policy direction for mid-rise development at next years public hearing. District Plans will have a significant impact on how our City grows, therefore it is important that they reflect an adequate breadth of policy direction at all levels of development. If the Urban Mix policy is not amended to allow for mid-rise in context-appropriate locations, this could create a lack of recourse when these kinds of projects come up for public hearing with a rezoning application.
The changes IDEA proposes provides citizens with clarity on how our mature neighbourhoods will grow and change. IDEA is not looking for absolute perfection in the plans but there needs to be enough certainty that the District Plans reflect what we are already doing in our city.