Burlington OP changes course: Fresh Slate

NRU
Nov. 2, 2016
Andrew Cohrs

Yesterday Burlington council decided to halt its official plan review process, begun in 2011, and instead create a brand new official plan, one more in tune with its future as a modern mid-sized city.

Chief planner Mary Lou Tanner explained to NRU that the current official plan is no longer relevant to how Burlington will grow in the future. Its focus is on greenfield development and building to the urban boundary, something the city has nearly completed.

“The fundamental basis of the plan has changed: we are not growing out, we are growing up, so as we look at the priorities for growing up—build up, build smart, build beautiful—they are very different than talking about building new communities... When we talk about intensification and a different growth form in the city, we’re talking about different values and goals... It felt like we were trying to fi t a square peg into a round hole.”

The new official plan will reframe land use decisions to reflect the city’s new strategic plan, adopted in February, and its new urban structure and intensification framework, adopted in July. This will shift the plan away from polices rooted in greenfield development.

“It was a real struggle to try and delete and insert, and what became clear was a fresh slate was the way to go, and then we could structure and write it the way we believe is going to deliver a modern 21st century mid-sized city,” said Tanner.

A lot of the work that was undertaken as part of the review process, such as policy research, analysis and community feedback, will inform the drafting of the new official plan. The staff report suggests that this change in course will not have an impact on cost or timing and anticipates the new official plan being drafted by the first quarter of 2017. Rather than delaying its release, the staff report notes that matters requiring further analysis and consultation, such as policies needed to implement mobility hub area-specific plans, will be addressed through subsequent amendments.