Welcome

Welcome to the Municipal Blog relating to the 5 Year Review of the Municpality of Meaford Official Plan. Please note that this blog is not intended to replace formal public consultation under the Planning Act but is instead meant to be a forum for information sharing on topics and ideas relating the review and community planning in general. Feel free to post comments or questions. Also be sure to visit the Municipal Webste (here) for additional information about the Official Plan Review.

All About Official Plans

What is an Official Plan?
Official Plans are municipalities' primary strategic documents for guiding land use and development. They contain the goals and objectives of the community and set policies to direct the form, location, nature and rate of growth and change over a set period of time – typically a 20 year planning horizon.

Official Plans have legal status, under authorityof the Planning Act of Ontario and all municipal public works and by-laws must conform to the Plan.

What does an Official Plan look like?
An Official Plan is made up of text and maps.

The text portion of the Plan describes the goals, objectives and policies for various land uses (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, environmental protection). The text also includes general development policies which relate to matters such as provision of water and sewer, transportation, heritage resources and the requirements for subdivision of land.

The maps identify the location and extent of the various land-use designations, environmental constraints, and other features such as the Niagara Escarpment Planning Area.

Why are we updating the Plan?
Municipalities must update their Official Plans every five years. This makes sure that plan reflects changing circumstances and trends. It also offers Council and the community a chance to review how the plan has been working (to direct us towards our goals and overall vision) and to make changes if necessary.

How is the update going?
Meaford started our review with a kick-off public meeting in March 2010. We have been working behind-the-scenes over the past two years reviewing our existing plan, researching, consulting with agencies such as the Health Unit and Conservation Authority and developing draft policies.

One of the main goals of our review will be to update our Plan to be consistent with recent updates to the County of Grey's Official Plan. The County's Plan has been approved by both the County and Province however was appealed, in part, and is not yet in full force and effect. As soon as the County Official Plan is in effect, Meaford will kick our OP review into high-gear. Regardless of the timeline for the County's Official Plan, we intend to carry out some preliminary stakeholder consultations over the coming months regarding the draft policies we've been working on. We look forward to hearing from you!

For more information about Official Plans and our OP review please visit the following links:


Municipality of Meaford 5 Year OP Review

Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Citizen's Guide: Official Plans)

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