An unprecedented meeting involving five municipal councils is scheduled for September 24 to vote on a bylaw adopting the Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth (P4G) Official Community Plan (OCP).
The September 24 video-conference joint meeting includes the city councils of Saskatoon, Martensville and Warman, the RM council of Corman Park, and the town council of Osler. If every elected representative is able to participate, there will be 41 councillors on the call. In addition, administrative staff for each municipality will also be included.
Prior to that event, each council will introduce first reading of the P4G OCP. The joint meeting will include a public hearing on the bylaw, followed by second and third readings.
If adopted at that meeting and endorsed by the provincial government later this fall, the P4G Planning District OCP will replace the existing Corman Park-Saskatoon Planning District OCP.
P4G Director Neal Sarnecki said the new OCP is the result of all five municipalities working together to map out a coherent future plan for growth and development.
“It’s unprecedented, and it’s taken a tremendous amount of work to get where we are now,” said Sarnecki in an interview. “This new OCP allows municipalities to foster growth by coordinating their efforts.
“It’s a more efficient and effective way of growing by identifying future land uses such as future urban residential, commercial and industrial, and also country residential.”
Sarnecki said the plan will also help guide the location of future electrical and natural gas utilities, wastewater and water pipelines, roadways and other services.
“The goal is to provide more certainty to landowners, developers, municipal governments and taxpayers,” said Sarnecki. “The OCP is a guide to opportunities for development.”
He noted the regional OCP is a logical extension of municipal planning. Municipalities already have the power to regulate different types of development within their boundaries; the P4G helps ensure the municipalities are not working at cross-purposes.
“Regional cooperation is challenging everywhere,” he said. “But we’re seeing it more often. Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg are all going through similar processes. The evidence shows that if you want to attract people and grow economically, you need to have every municipality in the region on the same page.”
Sarnecki said there has been significant public input into the P4G OCP and zoning bylaw over the last three years. The public hearing September 24 marks the culmination of that consultation process.
“The document has been refined as a result of public feedback,” said Sarnecki. “