We’re planning for the future – read and review the first draft of the new Official Plan

Today the City of Kingston published the first draft of a new Official Plan for public review. It’s available to read now, and community members can submit feedback and comments until the end of November.

“This is the most important planning policy document a City can have. It will become the City’s rule book guiding all future development decisions and has the power to transform how the city grows” said Laura Flaherty, Project Manager with Planning Services. “The plan needs to reflect how the community wants to grow and create the policies to support that vision.”

A City must have an Official Plan under Provincial law.

 “This first draft of Kingston’s new Official Plan is more than a policy document. It is a reflection of our shared values and long-term vision. Public feedback is essential to ensure this Plan is truly made in Kingston, by Kingstonians, for Kingstonians, past, present, and future” said Paige Agnew, the Commissioner of Growth and Development Services. “By reviewing and responding to this working draft, community members are helping to shape how Kingston will grow and evolve until 2051. We’re not just asking for input, we’re building a dialogue that will inform the policies guiding everything from housing and infrastructure to the environment, heritage and transportation.”

Official Plans are long-range planning documents. The last time the City of Kingston wrote a new Official Plan was 2010. Back then lower Princess Street was being rebuilt, the Isabel Bader Performing Arts Centre had just been constructed, and the Olympic Torch passed through town on its way to Vancouver. Since then, much has changed including that Official Plan, through amendments and a review, as have the needs of the community.

We now find ourselves faced with intersecting challenges including housing, climate, and affordability crises that the current Official Plan does not adequately address. New growth estimates and analysis show that Kingston is expected to grow to as many as 220,000 people by 2051. Creating a new Official Plan is our most powerful tool to address these big issues head-on and we’ve taken an unprecedented approach to coordinate the timing of this project with our new Integrated Mobility Plan project and the Water and Wastewater Master Plan, which will better position us to achieve all of our strategic priorities through well-coordinated land use policies and transportation and infrastructure planning.  

This Official Plan will support housing growth, new employment and commercial opportunities, protect the natural environment and ecosystems, help us mitigate and adapt to climate change, and ensure that municipal services and infrastructure can support the growing community.

“Once built, urban landscapes are slow to change and leave a lasting legacy for many generations” said Flaherty. “This plan is not just for residents of today; it is our biggest chance to make sure Kingston grows into a livable city for future generations.”

By their nature Official Plans are often complex, legal documents. This draft tries to make it easier to understand by simplifying how polices are described, defining them first then connecting them to maps. As much as possible plain language has been used to make it easier to read. The introduction section provides critical and helpful information to understand the rest of the plan.

“This is a new kind of process that is centred around consultation through draft documents. We’re sharing our ideas as a working draft so that everyone can see how policies are interconnected, how priorities interact and align with mapping, and help us refine them. Every piece of feedback helps us connect the dots between planning policy, the community’s vision and our most important strategic objectives as a city” said Sukriti Agarwal, Manager of Policy Planning. “We’ve tried to make this draft more accessible, shorter, easier to read, and supported by interactive maps. But to create the best possible final document, we need people to read, challenge and contribute to this first working draft.”

Public Engagement

Since last summer the City has engaged on the Official Plan and it’s supporting studies. With the launch of this first draft we would like to hear from you. Between now the end of November the draft will be open for comment on Get Involved Kingston we welcome your feedback and comments on the content of the plan and the writing of the plan itself.

We will also be hosting public engagement opportunities in the fall. Details are being finalized and will be announced once confirmed.

Once this stage of public engagement is completed, the feedback will be compiled and a second draft will be written. The second draft will be released early next year and will incorporate what we heard during community consultation on the first draft, as well as, what we will learn from yet-to-be completed technical reports like the Natural Heritage Study and the Forest Management Strategy.

About YG220K

The Official Plan is part of the City’s long term planning work currently underway called YG220K. The name references the city's airport code and regional identifier, YGK, and 220K, short for 220,000, which is the population Kingston is expected to hit by 2051.

YG220K encompasses not only the Official Plan, but also the Integrated Mobility Plan, which will guide how the City’s transportation system will develop into the future.

While separate plans, the Official Plan and Integrated Mobility Plan are being completed concurrently because together they will shape how the City grows and moves over the next 25 years. To learn more visit the project webpage and subscribe for updates.