Senior planning staff delivered some disappointing news to Huntsville’s Planning Committee on October 12. They informed committee that due to staff shortages in the planning department, hopes of completing Huntsville’s Official Plan review this year will not happen.
Why does the Official Plan (OP) matter?
Huntsville’s Official Plan may not be the sexiest material you’ll ever read, but it is important. It determines how and where your community will grow, and where industry, services and commerce will be located. It helps residents understand how their land may be used now and into the future. It provides guiding principles for establishing municipal zoning bylaws, which determine things like the size of building lots, boathouses and building heights. The OP is also often used to evaluate and settle conflicting and controversial land uses – especially at the Ontario Municipal Board.
The last time the Town of Huntsville conducted a comprehensive review of its OP was in 2006, with some minor amendments taking place in 2011/2012. Manager of Planning, Kirstin Maxwell, gave committee an overview of the work that has been done to date on updating Huntsville’s OP. She said the initial background work was completed between 2012 and 2014. A committee was then established to identify priorities for the OP update, which included things like Hwy 60 design guidelines as well as active transportation requirements. In 2015 Marshall, Macklin, Monaghan (MMM) Consulting Ltd. was hired to proceed with the review. They provided public engagement with a video (see below) and a vision, and a goals and objectives report was completed; there are some additional background reports that are still in progress, Maxwell told committee.
Staff ask for an extension
“The original schedule that had been proposed had indicated that we would be nearing completion at this point, which we are not. There has been some staffing issues and then additional workload,” she said, adding that the District Municipality of Muskoka has also embarked on their OP review, “which is another consideration for ours because we want to make sure that whatever we’re doing is also in line with the direction that the District is taking.”
Maxwell said moving forward the planning department would like to get a new timeline in place, with the hopeful adoption of Huntsville’s new OP sometime in early 2018. In the meantime, she said a housekeeping amendment could be made to the OP to implement active transportation changes already proposed. “But again, this would be staffing dependent too as we’re still down a staff person in the planning department,” said Maxwell. Municipal planner Blaine Yatabe was hired in March, but he’s no longer with the municipality.
How much of the budget has already been spent?
Deputy Mayor Karin Terziano called the turn of events disappointing and asked how much of the Town’s $80,000 OP review budget has been spent so far. Executive Director of Planning Services Derrick Hammond said about two-thirds of the budget has already been spent. He noted that given staffing shortages, staff will rely more heavily on consultants to continue doing the bulk of the work. He also said staff is recommending that the OP review committee not be dissolved in November of this year as originally anticipated but that it be extended until the updated OP document is complete.
Planning department already taxed with existing workload
Hammond said regular applications that the Town’s planning department reviews, advertises and takes back to committee and council for approval is consuming the bulk of planning staff’s time.
That’s their bread and butter, so our ability to respond to a more strategic project like that in that context is difficult. So with the key staff person managing the project [Chris Marshall] leaving and then another staff member leaving, it complicates our ability to move this along in a timely fashion, hence the revised time frame, which admittedly it seems a bit conservative but we’re hedging our bets with respect to our ability to respond to it based on staffing. If we’re able to expedite those time frames we certainly will.
Derrick Hammond, Executive Director of Development Services
It is still unclear whether more funds will be required to complete the OP review. In a follow-up conversation with Hammond he explained: “My plan is to use up the remaining budget to get the background work done. The original plan was staff would write the document and to your point if we don’t get an additional staff member in the shorter term, then potentially yes we would have to consult out the drafting of the plan.”
Staff may need to rely on consultant more heavily
Hammond said if a consultant is required to write the OP policy, then it will cost more but the fact that the background work will have already been completed at that time will make it cheaper. Planning Committee Chair Nancy Alcock said while at first blush the news is disappointing, it is not a shock given that the Town originally had a staff person dedicated to the project and things have since changed with respect to staffing. At one point the planning department had just one person holding it together, she noted. “Planners are in high demand right now, just generally.”
Not earth shattering says chair
Alcock said while the delay is not ideal, she is not overly concerned. She said the existing OP is serving the community well.
Our official plan is good, there’s nothing wrong with using it to defend the municipality at an OMB (Ontario Municipal Board Hearing).
Councillor Nancy Alcock, Planning Committee Chair
Alcock said there is really no teeth in it but municipalities are supposed to review their OP every five years and many don’t. She said the new provincial planning act will require municipalities to review their plan every 10 years. She also said, as it happens, the fact that the District is updating its own OP works well as changes will need to be reflected in Huntsville’s.
Some important areas will need to be examined and included in the Town’s OP update, said Alcock, things like when is it okay to develop in rural areas where municipal services are not available? She also wants to see a conservation zone, which would provide connectivity for wildlife. Such a conservation area, or natural heritage area, would span the entire municipality. “Define it and then you know where you can build in-between,” said Alcock.
She also spoke about establishing certain special policy areas in Huntsville’s downtown to encourage development.
View Huntsville’s current Official Plan here.
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Several issues come to the fore from this article:
1) the District’s OP review is almost concurrent with the Town’s. Surely, all six area municipalities should have a built-in lag time of as much as two years to incorporate the District’s changes;
2) the active transportation amendments “should” (not “could”) be implemented as soon as possible. My assumption is that this mostly concerns bike lanes: Bicycles could then be rented (and returned) at various locations in Town; as a boon to tourism;
3) Highway 60 design guidelines are mentioned. There has been mention of a portion of Highway 60 (perhaps as far as Hidden Valley) becoming a District Road; but this implies a portion becoming a Town Road. The new right-of-way south of the existing highway has already been established: Why would it be re-designed?;
4) any talk of a consultant re-visiting the situation is just plain scary: a consultant will devour the remaining one-third of the budget in no time, and we will be well on our way to a $150,000 (or more) expenditure; and
5) exactly what is the composition of the OP Review Committee? With occasional access to a planner, a knowledgeable Committee should be able to accomplish the review in-house; especially with the District Review as a template.
This review is far more important than implied. I have represented my lake association in front of the OMB, and I would never have agreed to do it with a document in such shape. Apparently, some of it has been thoroughly reviewed piece-meal; other portions have been the subject of extensive background work; and the majority of it has not been touched. A developer could readily exploit such an OP.
Please hire another planner and assign her/him to the OP exclusively.
Did the previous council and mayor not re-write the official plan to suit whatever the developers wanted they get and the new council and mayor are following in their footsteps.