Official Plan Update

You are invited to attend the first Community Workshop on the Town of Collingwood's Official Plan Update.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Collingwood Public Library, Rooms B & C
55 Ste. Marie Street, Collingwood

Three Workshop sessions are planned. Please register for the session that best suits your schedule:

• 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
• 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
• 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

The workshop will begin with a brief presentation, followed by table group discussions on various topics.

Register at: eventbrite.com/e/collingwood-official-plan-update-workshop-1-tickets-93308962619

What do you think Collingwood should look like in 20 years?
Please join us to discuss your thoughts, including:

• Where and how should the Town grow (areas for housing, jobs, natural areas, and places to shop, gather, and play)?
• What does a healthy community look like?
• How should we travel around the Town?
• What should our existing and new neighbourhoods look like?
• Where will jobs locate and what should our commercial areas look like?
• How are buildings set out and designed?
• How will new development address climate change?
• How should we protect the natural environment?

Help the Town understand what matters to you - the key issues and opportunities for change in Collingwood.
The Town of Collingwood is updating its Official Plan. The Official Plan is the overall policy framework for how land is used in Collingwood and sets out the vision for our community over the next 20 years. The Plan is the guide for managing where, when and how the Town should grow. The Official Plan Update is being completed over the course of the next 14 months and will include many opportunities to be involved throughout.

For more information please check the project web page engage.collingwood.ca/official-plan
Or contact: officialplanupdate@collingwood.ca 705-445-1290

In a special Council Workshop held on Tuesday, January 7, Councillors were asked for their thoughts and ideas as the Official Plan Update project gets underway. Staff and project consultants, recently retained by the Town, walked members of Council through the work program. The project will unfold through 2020 including several phases:

• Developing our community land use and development vision,
• issues identification, and
• directions for planning policy

before a draft plan Official Plan is completed and a final plan is submitted for Council approval.

During an interactive discussion session members of Council shared their ideas and expectations about the Official Plan. “Collingwood has experienced rapid change in recent years and an updated Official Plan will help ensure that we are equipped with a land use vision and plan to guide us as we move forward,” said Mayor Saunderson who added, “I was impressed with the comments provided around the table and I’m looking forward to hearing what people in the community think.”

Council approved a terms of reference for the project last year and has since retained The Planning Partnership, a consulting firm with extensive experience in municipal planning, to help lead the project. The work program sets out many opportunities for public involvement.

The Official Plan guides land use planning in the community and addresses a wide range of issues such as where and how growth occurs, what neighbourhoods and buildings look like, where and how we work, shop and play and how we get around Town.

A number of factors are driving the need to update the plan:

• The Town has unique characteristics and needs to update its land use plan and vision for the future to help guide development.
• The Town has approved many new plans in a wide range of areas and related content from those plans needs to be contained in the Official Plan to help shape how the community grows;
• There were many changes to the Province of Ontario land use planning framework over the last year including to the Planning Act and a number of related pieces of legislation, the Provincial Policy Statement and the Growth Plan 2019. In Ontario, municipalities are required to conform to the land use planning framework set by the Province.

For more information and to monitor project activities please visit the project webpage at: https://engage.collingwood.ca/official-plan