Town to release draft of Official Plan to the public on March 17

By Rob Paul

Now in Phase 3 of the Future Caledon: Official Plan, Town Staff provided Council with an update as it works towards drafting the Official Plan.

The Official Plan is expected to be finalized sometime in 2022.

Council followed Staff recommendations and passed a motion unanimously to proceed with public consultation on a draft of the Official Plan. Caledon's Official plan must align both with the Region and Province's Official Plans.

With Council's direction, Staff will now be releasing the draft of the Official Plan on March 17 with multiple open house dates set to hear from the public leading up to an update to Council with the feedback on May 16.

There are two upcoming open houses for more feedback from the public regarding the Official Plan on March 28, March 30, and a public meeting April 11.

“Following the end of the formal consultation period, the Official Plan team will review the comments provided and look to make necessary changes to the draft,” said Bailey Loverock, Senior Policy Planer and Team Lead for Official Plan Review. “We'll plan to provide an update to Council in May and provide our final Official Plan to council for consideration in June. There are additional consultation items that we're looking at conducting, which include focus groups with community groups, Indigenous consultation, and engagement with our agency partners.”

The Plan prepares the Town for growth to 2051, guiding where the community will develop, locate housing, build transportation networks, locate employment, and provide community facilities, based on the 13 Policy Directions developed earlier in the Official Plan process.

The Plan has been prepared and informed by over 20 studies, extensive research and Council, staff and community feedback.

The key policy themes of the Official Plan are action against climate change; protecting and enhancing natural heritage, agricultural, and rural landscapes; transit-supportive densities and an effective transportation network; supportive of a range of housing types and tenures; job growth and attracting priority employment sectors; and protection of rural communities. 

The Official Plan is organized into three volumes with the first volume focused on Town-wide policies through an introduction, vision statement, detail on how the community will be shaped, planning of the community and its growth, how policies will be implemented, and an update map of how the community will look through planning and growth.

The Official Plan also details secondary plan and site-specific policies.

Residents can learn more about the Official Plan process, key dates, and to voice their thoughts at haveyoursaycaledon.ca/official-plan-review.