Official Plan Review with Meaford Logo and rolling hills image in the background.

An Official Plan describes Municipal Council’s policies on how land in the community should be used and helps to ensure that future planning and development will meet the needs of the community. It addresses a variety of issues such as where housing, employment, agricultural, industrial and commercial uses should be located; what services such as roads, sewers and parks will be needed to support growth; and, the way in which the community will evolve.

 

Agendas for the meetings scheduled on Monday November 7, 2022 at the Council Chambers are available at the following links.  This meeting included Council’s consideration of the Official Plan Update.

 

Below is the Notice of Adoption of the Official Plan Amendment in accordance with Sections 17 and 22 of the Planning Act. 
Council of the Municipality of Meaford adopted Official Plan Amendment OPA34 by passing by-law 2022-70 on November 7, 2022. 


 

 

 

“Red-lined” version of the updated Official Plan is now available
 

Below is the “red-lined” version of the updated Official Plan. 

 

Previously we posted the Draft Official Plan Amendment which is available in the below drop down menu. The “red-lined” version of the updated Official Plan document puts the changes into the text of the plan to make it easier for the reader and non-experts to interpret the changes.  

 

This document is the culmination of a couple of years of work with staff and our excellent consultant team at NPG. Although interrupted by COVID earlier in the process, we have included an especially intensive effort for citizen engagement over the past eight months, far outpacing the typical processes municipalities take in terms of citizen and stakeholder engagement. This included: over 20 meetings and workshops open to the public for their participation; multiple meetings with each of Council’s Advisory Committees and BIA; being supported by a team of volunteer “community connectors”;  working in collaboration with a team of masters students from Ryerson University; and, reviewing the hundreds of responses received to our online questionnaire. 

 

Click here to view the “Red-lined” version of the updated Official Plan

 

If you have any questions about the changes, please feel free to contact us. Contact information is listed at the bottom of this page.

Draft Official Plan Amendment No. XX
NPG Planning Solutions Inc. (NPG) has been retained by the Municipality of Meaford to complete the required review of the Municipality’s Official Plan. This review has resulted in the draft of Official Plan Amendment No. XX to the Municipality of Meaford Official Plan (see documents posted below).

 

A “redline” copy of the Official Plan Amendment has been developed and is available in the drop down menu above.  This redline has been generated as a more reader-friendly document of the proposed amendment to assist persons who are not familiar with the matrix format. The key components of the amendment are as follows:

 

1. The Amendment creates a 25-year community plan for growth and community development founded on the community structure in Meaford;

2. The Amendment creates opportunities for new housing through updated policies for housing and the provision of policies supporting
intensification, redevelopment, and additional dwelling units;

3. The Amendment confirms the importance of the commercial areas in the Meaford;

4. The Amendment reflects and incorporates feedback related to community growth, protection of agricultural land, supporting tourism
including agri-tourism, reinforcing the commitment to downtown Meaford, and supporting all ages-friendly community development;

5. The Amendment updates the forecasted population, employment and household growth for the planning horizon;

6. The Amendment addresses community feedback; and

7. The Amendment achieves the following to assist in administering the Plan:

    a. Flexibility in Application, Interpretation, and Updating of the Plan
    b. Enhanced readability and understanding of the Plan

 

This amendment has been prepared on the following basis:

1. Conformity to the Provincial Policy Statement (2020);

2. Feedback received at the Special Council Meeting held under Section 26 of the Planning Act (May 2021) from members of Council and residents of the Municipality of Meaford;

2. Updates to the Planning Act regarding various matters including additional dwelling units; parkland dedication; community benefit charges, and more;

4. Feedback received from community members and groups in the winter, spring, and summer of 2022;

5. Feedback received from Meaford Council’s Advisory Committees in the spring and summer of 2022;

 

Please note that a Public Meeting for this draft Official Plan Amendment will be held on September 19, 2022 at 5 p.m. at Meaford Hall, located at 12 Nelson Street East.

The Public Meeting is held by Council to receive comments on the Amendment. If a person wishes to make a deputation as part of the
Public Meeting they should contact the Municipality’s Deputy Clerk at deputyclerk@meaford.ca. Written comments can also be provided in
advance of the meeting to the Deputy Clerk.

As always, we ask that you be a helpful citizen and pass on this information to others that you know would be interested.  

 

 

 

Community Feedback to the Survey

Your input is confirming that our existing Official Plan aligns with community wants. A lot of the information and themes shared in the survey responses and at the Community Chat meeting held on February 23, 2022 are already contained within the existing Official Plan. While there is still work to be done to make sure the Official Plan can address changing circumstances overtime and prepare for growth to 2046, your feedback has reaffirmed we are headed in the right direction. We will be taking your insights and adapting them into new policies, or amended the existing policies, so that the Official Plan better matches the desires and goals of the community.  

Thank you for providing your input! We received a great response from residents offering meaningful input on the Official Plan survey. In total there were 415 individual surveys that were submitted.

The responses provide an excellent picture of citizen’s insights to endorse the types of policies that should be in the Official Plan that will support good planning and development in the municipality. The amount of interest received on the Official Plan survey represents the incredible depth of citizen engagement that exists across the municipality. We invite you to have a read of the responses, so you have an understanding of the insights provided from fellow community citizens. 

All the responses, just as we received them, have been included in the link below. 

light bulb logo

 Comparing Comments with the Existing Official Plan

Below is a link to the Official Plan. Reading the Official Plan in combination with the survey responses can offer an additional understanding of how some responses that were identified in the survey are addressed in the existing Official Plan and the policy that is provided to achieve them. 

Existing Official Plan

 Full Public Meeting Schedule
 Fifth update to public meeting schdule
Policy Direction Overview

image of harbour with waves crashing and the words "Municipality of Meaford Official Plan Update"

Over the past weeks and months Municipal staff have been meeting with Council’s Advisory Committees on the Official Plan Update. At each of the initial discussion sessions of the Advisory Committees staff provided an overview of the Official Plan update process and purpose. Two months after the initial discussions, during which Committee members were asked to gather community insights, a second set of meetings were held with the Committees to receive their input. 

 

This slideshow provides a brief overview of the main points relating to potential changes to the Official Plan that were discussed at these second sessions with the Advisory Committees. 

 

The slideshow also includes examples of the kinds of policy updates being drafted that are based on the review of the existing document.  This review helped identify appropriate opportunities to amend policies to make them more effective and aligned with the insights shared by local citizens throughout the community consultation process.

 

This slideshow was shared at the recent public “Community Chat” event held on July 14, 2022 at Meaford Hall.

 

Click here to view the slideshow

 

Official Plan Review - July, 2022 Community Consultation Review and Process Update
 
 The Official Plan

The Official Plan (OP) is the document that defined local policies and objective relating to physical, social, economic and environmental change and development for the community into the future. 

 

The OP does not “stand alone” as it works in concert with other policies and tools that guide the evolution of the community, such as: Site Plan Control; Community Design Standards; Zoning By-law, etc. Once the OP is adopted these other regulations and guiding documents will be updated to help implement the goals and actions it describes.

Official Plan Review Overview poster

 

2022 Community Consultation Process

The 2022 Community Consultation schedule for the Official Plan Update project included over 20 different meetings open to the public.  This process provided different options for formats, input, and subject matters.

 

The insights gathered from these meetings, the online questionnaire, the feedback from the Community Connectors, etc. will inform the update to the Official Plan.

2022 Community Consultation Overview

 

Community Discussions Overview

There were four Community Discussions facilitated by the Municipality’s consultation. These were designed to discuss specific groups of subjects: a) Downtown Development and Key Public Lands, b) Urban Character and Settlements, c) Rural Character and Settlements, d) Agricultural and Rural Lands.

 

The insights gathered through these will inform the draft of the Updated Official Plan.

 

Downtown Development and Key Public Lands
 Downtown development and key public lands poster
Urban Character and Settlements
urban character and settlements poster
Rural Character and Settlements
rural character and settlements workshop poster
Agricultural and Rural Lands
agricultural and rural lands workshop poster

 

Updating Policies

The Official Plan’s policies are interrelated and need to be considered collectively.  This means that many of the policies are not categorized in the same way as the subjects covered by Council’s Advisory Committees.  To assist the Committee members with their review of the Official Plan (OP) and their outreach to local citizens a matrix was created to help navigate the sections of the OP that relate to each of the Committees’ subjects.  This matrix was offered as a timesaving tool, not as a definitive listing of applicable references for each of the Committees.

Click here to view the matrix. 

 

Additionally, the discussions with Advisory Committees and Community Connectors included an overview of the process to analyze and develop policy update recommendations.  The core of this was a three step process of 1) describing an opportunity, 2) considering the implications, and 3) describing an action.

 

updating policies poster

 

Community Design

One of the most common and potentially impactful subjects that came up during the community consultation process was “community design”, or urban design.  This subject relates to many aspects of the built environment, such as: the relationship of land uses and their locations in the community; the physical elements and characteristics of new development; the function of uses and how they relate to each other and existing neighbourhoods; aesthetic qualities of new buildings; and, the public realm and how it supports community health, well-being, and economic development.

 

When we recognize the fact that the downtown Heritage District for example, has many sites that are either vacant or not identified as heritage, we can see how influential changes to the built environment may be as Meaford evolves.  

 

One of the “implementation” projects that will come out of the updated Official Plan will be the creation of Community Design Standards and Guidelines.  This will direct the form of new development and address many of the aspects of community life that are impacted by the built environment, including: accessibility; all-ages appropriate design; walkability and bikeability; climate resiliency and adaptability; contextually sensitive design; and, access to nature.  Some initial work on the Community Design Standards Project has been completed using provincial modernization grant funding, and the Project will continue again as soon as practicable as the Official Plan Update Project is completed.  The Official Plan policies will provide the direction for this Project moving forward.

community design poster

 

If you would like to be notified directly with updates, please email officialplan@meaford.ca to be placed on our mailing list.

 The Municipality of Meaford has hired NPG Planning Solutions to lead the review process.

Resources:

 

 

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