The major push for municipalities these days is to undergo the adoption of an official community plan, a long-range planning document. A constant question of administrators and councillors is, what exactly is an official community plan?
According to section 31 of the Planning and Development Act, 2017, the purpose of an official community plan is to provide a comprehensive policy framework to guide the physical, environmental, economic, social and cultural development of the municipality or any part of the municipality. It is a policy document that guides administration and council to implement holistic growth. Planning does not occur in isolation and various factors need to be taken into consideration when planning for a community’s future. Regardless of whether the community is an urban or rural municipality, regional park or First Nation, holistic planning is important to ensure all factors are considered before policies that guides future land use planning and development are written. For First Nations, these types of documents include a community development plan, or a comprehensive community plan, and can be implemented through the creation of a capital works plan.
The Province of Saskatchewan adopted 14 statements of provincial interest in 2012, which requires that when any professional planner writes a municipality’s OCP, certain elements are taken into consideration before the province will approve the document. Some of the factors include residential development, economic development, the environment and shorelines, public safety, transportation, safe drinking water, agriculture, mineral resource exploration and extraction and many others. While this provincial policy ensures the province gets first dibs on the items that they feel is most important (namely mineral resource exploration and extraction, highways, and aggregates), the policy does force administrators and councillors to focus on the entire community and not just on one or two areas.
There are good examples that illustrate what this translates to at the local level. One of my councils was debating the requirements of sidewalks and whether it was a mandatory construction policy they wanted to include within their future plan. One side argued about the increased cost of installation and maintenance, and the other side argued about resident accessibility and better personal health, as more people would be able to walk around the community instead of being forced to drive. In this community, the sidewalks and walking path were designed to go by a seniors’ centre and a daycare, which provided a safe place for these vulnerable demographics to walk, instead of being forced to walk on the street and contend with vehicular traffic.
Jane Jacobs, who is considered to be the founder of modern planning in North America, evaluated her communities’ liveability by noting people often feel safer when surrounded by other people, and more eyes on the street increases public safety. This was proven by another of my communities that constructed a walking path from the main residential community into the countryside to an area of special significance that was being vandalized and frequented by partiers. The walking trail attracted everyday residents to that location, and more eyes on the site reduced vandalism completely at that location, which meant the history was protected. Downtown Regina also implemented this policy by creating a pedestrian street where restaurants and bars are now allowed to have outdoor patios extending into the pedestrian walkway, where patrons can look out onto the street, which helps to make that area of downtown feel safer.
Who knew sidewalks and walking paths were so complicated? But this example alone has considered a number of factors: transportation, public safety, residential development, health care, economic development and tourism. While sidewalks may not be applicable to your community, your plan should be comprehensive enough to navigate through the daily activities that occur in your community.
When the planning consultants are writing for your community’s future plan, they should be considering many factors for all land use and development. It’s a complex task, especially when some communities have a myriad of land uses to consider like residential development, agriculture, lakes, and oil and gas exploration. Nonetheless, your hired planning consultants should create a document that incorporates all these factors and provide you with policies that your council deems acceptable.
— S. Yvonne Prusak, BASc, MA, MCIP, RPP, is a municipal planner with municipalities and communities in Northwest Saskatchewan. She specializes in land use planning and development. She can be reached at 306-845-6702 or at yvonne@northboundplanning.ca.
