Niagara Falls, Welland seek public input on crucial plans to shape their future

The Official Plan: A Vision for the Future

Even the most casual observer of municipal council meetings has likely heard reference to a municipality’s Official Plan (or OP) and may have a general idea of what the phrase implies. With two of Niagara’s largest municipalities currently embarking on processes related to their Official Plans, it allows for a deeper dive into how they impact a municipality.

As municipalities are considered “creatures of the Province”, Official Plans are mandated through the Provincial legislation of the Planning Act. While the Act does not specifically define an Official Plan it does require that the document contain “goals, objectives and policies established primarily to manage and direct physical change and the effects on the social, economic, built and natural environment of the municipality.” The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, in the Citizen’s Guide to Land Use Planning, describes it as the municipal council’s policies on ”how land in the community should be used.”

More specifically, an OP looks at where new residential, commercial and industrial uses will be located; what services may be required, such as infrastructure, parks, schools, libraries and where those services need to be located; and what types of land need to be protected, such as agricultural, natural areas, or heritage and water resources. 

An OP applies to the whole community and does get into specifics on individual properties, which are the purview of the municipality’s zoning by-law. The OP will provide a framework to establish such zoning by-laws and may indicate general standards on matters like lot sizes, urban design and building heights. For example, an OP may promote tree preservation in a community but the implementation of such a vision will occur through a related municipal by-law.

Input from the public is required under the legislation. The municipality must hold at least one public meeting and give appropriate notice of such a meeting, where any person or public body may provide written or verbal comments on the proposed plan. While one meeting is required, municipalities will often hold multiple open houses and provide other opportunities, such as surveys, to get input from the public. In addition, municipalities are required to engage with Indigenous communities and may consult with other “agencies, boards, authorities or commissions” before final adoption of an OP.

While the OP is a municipally-specific document, it must conform to the Planning Act, the Provincial Policy Statement, the Growth Plan for the Great Golden Horseshoe and, for Niagara municipalities, the upper-tier Niagara Region’s Official Plan. 

The latter document was approved in 2022 and sets growth targets for Niagara up to the year 2051. Population and housing targets outlined in the Region’s plan need to be complied with in the current efforts in Niagara Falls and Welland. 

Official Plans act as guiding documents for all types of growth across Ontario’s municipalities.

(Skylon Tower)

If the municipality does not conform to such documents, the approval authority will modify it. For Niagara’s lower-tier municipalities, the approval authority remains the upper-tier Niagara Region. (The Province’s Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024, received Royal Assent on July 1st, removing land use planning responsibilities for York, Peel, and Halton Regions. Lower-tier municipalities in Durham Region, Waterloo Region, Niagara Region and Simcoe County will be subject to further notice and consultation prior to the likely removal of planning responsibilities from those upper-tier municipalities.)

Once Council approves an OP or amends an existing one, the municipality has to give notice of such a decision, which triggers the 20-day appeal period. Appeals are limited to any of the persons or public bodies that spoke at the public meeting or provided written comments.     

Any municipal development applications that are completed prior to the municipality’s final adoption of the OP have to be considered under the policies that existed at the time of the application. Often the process surrounding even amendments to an OP can take years to be finalized, though more recent changes to the Planning Act, require municipalities to be more diligent in their efforts to keep OP’s timely, with reviews required every five years and new OPs every ten years. In addition, a municipality is required to bring their Zoning By-law into compliance within a year of adoption of an OP.

Despite the fact that OP’s are long-term visions for a municipality, the document is not set in stone, with the possibility of amendments, as the needs of a community change.
 

Is there change in the air in Niagara Falls that will see a focus on non-tourism areas of the municipality? 

Niagara’s second largest lower-tier municipality began the process for a new Official Plan in late 2023 when it issued a Request for Proposal for consultant services, eventually selecting the firm The Planning Partnership earlier this year, with an approved budget allotment of $625,000.     

In addition to the legislative requirements necessitating a new OP, such as conformity to the Region’s 2022 plan and Regional and Provincial growth targets, a number of practical reasons are at play: the City of Niagara Falls has not had a new OP since 1993, with the existing document becoming “lengthy and cumbersome to read” according to City Planning staff, with more than 160 amendments. 

At a presentation before Council in March, Kira Dolch, the City’s General Manager, Planning, Building & Development described the current document as too “zoning-esque”, with the hope that the new document will “modernize the readability, flexibility and interpretation of OP policies to reduce the need for numerous amendments”, as per the related staff report at the time.

A new OP will also enable the municipality to add new policies on housing, climate change adaptation, urban design, complete communities and the adaptive reuse of sites. Planning staff are also hopeful that the final OP will be flexible enough to deal with the “constant and on-going changes to Provincial legislation and policies that have made the standard process of conformity a challenge.”

In keeping with the Region’s OP and provincial projections for 2051, Niagara Falls will have to forecast and plan for unprecedented growth. The municipality, which has a current population of approximately 88,000 and 33,380 homes, is projected by 2051 to have a population increase of 60 percent, up to 141,000 residents, with anticipated 20,220 new residential units by 2051, 8,000 of which are earmarked by 2031.

The City’s consultants have proposed a vigorous work plan and schedule. The OP project is envisioned in five phases: Project Initiation and Visioning, Background Research and Discussion Papers, Policy Direction, the Draft Official Plan and final adoption by December 2024.

At the March 5th special meeting of Council, the consultants promised public consultation at all phases. At an update to Council on June 18th, the various public outreach methods were outlined: an on-line survey; one-on-one telephone/virtual calls (20) with the Consultant’s Project Manager;  one-on-one meetings with the Mayor and City Councillors; preliminary stakeholder meetings with such groups as the City Business Improvement Areas, local Chambers of Commerce, Industrial Representatives and Environmental Groups; a presentation to the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee and the subsequent identification of Youth Ambassadors for the project; classroom engagement at two local Secondary Schools and an elementary school; two in person public workshops and three virtual meetings and booths at various events in the community.

During the second phase of the project, the consultants prepared six discussion papers as “a point of departure for conversations about new opportunities, design strategies and policy direction.” The papers are entitled, and focused around the topics of, a Cultural City, a Connected and Mobile City, an Attractive City, a Green and Resilient City, a Growing City and an International City.

The discussion papers form the basis of a second survey of the public, which is open until Monday, July 29, 2024 at 11:59 pm EST. The feedback will set the stage for the third phase of the project, the creation of draft policy directions. 

The initial public feedback, according to the consultants, has focused around certain themes: housing and homelessness; protection of the natural environment over continued sprawl and development; transportation matters, such as road improvements, cycle routes and trails; an improved community appearance, including quality built form/architecture, and property maintenance, especially regarding vacant buildings; parkland protection and a focus on the non-tourism aspects of the city, a common refrain of local residents of Niagara Falls.

At the consultants update presentation in June, Council members provided feedback on the findings to-date and, specifically, public comments. Councillor Victor Pietrangelo described the unvarnished public comments as “raw”. Councillor Wayne Thomson, a long-time member of Council and former Mayor, took exception to the theme that there is too much focus on tourism-related matters in Niagara Falls. “Why would you even say that?”, he challenged consultant Joe Nehry, who replied:

“[I]t is improbable, dare I say foolish, to say that tourism would not be important going forward, but what we heard from residents is that they want to ensure that the rest of the City is remembered and planned for. Yes, the City is highly focused around tourism but it should be ready for a diversified economy.” 

First-term Councillor Tony Baldinelli, unlike Councillor Thomson, was not offended by the perceived slight on the local tourism industry. He commented that “as a local” he avoids the tourist core of the City due to gridlock and the high prices, concluding that “tourism should not be a liability to the City.”

As Mr. Nehry’s presentation was wrapping up, Mayor Jim Diodati asked how the public feedback gathered in Niagara Falls differed from other municipalities where The Planning Partnership had previously developed new OP’s.  The consultant responded that often in an Official Plan process they will receive feedback on what residents do not want to see changed in their communities. He said the prevailing opinion in Niagara Falls is that things need to change but there is an enthusiasm about the potential for change.

“[T]here seems to be something in the air. A desire to restore luster or build a new luster in the community.”

Whether Niagara Falls City Council, a number of whose members have served for many years, are open to change and a new vision, will be determined over the next six months.

The dedicated Let’s Talk Niagara Falls page on the Official Plan can be found here. The page includes the Discussion Papers.

The Discussion Paper Survey, available until Monday, July 29, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. can be found at the link above or here.

Welland’s Draft Official Plan Amendments Available for Public Comment

The current Official Plan process in Welland differs from Niagara Falls in that the municipality is amending their existing OP, as opposed to developing a new one. However, like Niagara Falls, Welland’s OP is of some vintage, having been adopted by the municipality in 2010 and approved by the Region in 2011.

Unlike the ambitious schedule proposed by the consultants for Niagara Falls, Welland began its OP review in 2021, had extensive public consultation in 2022 and just received the draft Official Plan update in June. Public comments on the draft are being sought until August 16th, which will lead to further open houses in September and a statutory public meeting on the possible adoption of the OP in October.

The draft document brings Welland in conformity with Provincial legislation, the 2022 Regional OP and outlines development for the municipality until 2051. Similar to Niagara Falls, Welland is also expected to see population growth. The Region forecasts a population of 83,000 by 2051, which would be a 27,250 person increase from 2021 census totals. Interestingly, a recent Development Charges (DC) study for the municipality pegs the 2051 population at a much higher total of almost 130,000, which would be a more than 130 percent increase to its current population.

Regardless of how high the Welland population will rise, the draft document outlines numerous proposed changes to the municipality’s Official Plan: acknowledgment of First Nations history and treaty lands in the community; strategic directions focused on creating vibrant, healthy communities, addressing climate change, and economic vitality; updated growth management strategies based on the projected growth; emphasis on natural environmental systems, green spaces, and tree protection; integration of art, culture, and design considerations to enhance quality of life and promotion of active transportation and updated infrastructure policies.

Welland Council had its first opportunity to provide feedback on the draft OP at their June 25th General Committee meeting. The issue of reconciling the Region’s population forecast with that of the City’s DC study was a subject of discussion. Ward 3 Councillor, John Chiocchio was concerned about the growth projections, submitting that with such growth comes the need for the municipality to spend “millions and millions of dollars”. He concluded that the municipality might want to “gear down” to comply with the Region’s projections, not the higher DC forecast. It was a position echoed by other elected officials, including Ward 5 Councillor Graham Speck, who indicated his concern for the “magnitude of the document” and Ward 6 Councillor Jamie Lee, who questioned why the density targets being proposed for Welland were more intensive than those found in the more urban and larger municipality of Hamilton.

The proposed amendments also include affordable housing targets of 20 percent for new rentals and 10 percent for new ownership units. When asked if the targets were sufficient, David Riley, the consultant from SGL Planning & Design, said such totals are more aspirational, as municipalities do not actually have mechanisms to compel affordable units.
 

The dedicated Engage Welland page on the Official Plan can be found here.

The public is invited to provide comments regarding the Draft Official Plan, by August 16th, 2024, to [email protected] 

Email: [email protected]

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