The City of Kawartha Lakes’…

The City of Kawartha Lakes’ full comments are attached. These are the key points:

- Regarding Official Plan Structure and Contents, we believe official plans should be unique to their communities. While municipalities might be able to work within a general structure or template, the content of official plans must be the result of extensive consultation.

- A provincial standard does not appear necessary. Perhaps there is a justification for standardizing Official Plans within the GTA, or those identified as Large and Fast Growing in the PPS, those within a shared region, or those with MTSAs.

- Suggest the province provide helpful guidelines rather than set of legislated rules.

- Secondary Plans are nimble and efficient ways to support development in specific areas, such as our four urban areas.

-We agree that development standards should not be found in Official Plans, but they should still contain general parameters. For example, plans for an area with a density between 30 and 40 people per hectare rather than a strict 35 to provide direction but also flexibility.

- Suggest the province host workshops with planners from multiple municipalities. Developing strategies together will naturally lead to a coalescing of the best approaches.
- Regarding Limiting the Length of Official Plans, we agree that some Official Plans could be pared down for precision. We suggest more general parameters for different sections and the overall length. And most importantly, explain why municipalities being asked to limit certain sections. This will assist municipalities in achieving the province’s goals.

- Instead of excluding a municipality’s history from their official plans, we recommend that municipalities be given page range to provide their history (both settler and indigenous) and, importantly, how these histories connect to the development policies within the official plan.

- Our comments also touch on visual elements and potentially limiting value, descriptive, non-binding, and aspirational statements along with reviewing the role of enabling or discretionary policies.

- Regarding Creating Permissive Land Use Designations, we note that the proposed designations do not include many that are needed in our municipality, such as Hamlet, Aggregate, and Waterfront. Considerably more research and consultation is required.

- For Transitioning to a New Framework, we are beginning to develop a new official plan. It is imperative the province keep an open dialogue with us so we can remain informed of their intent and any potential changes so our project is not delayed. We are eager to develop a new official plan to conform to the 2024 PPS.

- We support the proposed digital-first approach.