The City of St. Thomas is undertaking a review and update of its Official Plan.
The process is branded St. Thomas 2051: Setting the Track for our Future.
The review will help ensure the Official Plan continues to reflect evolving local priorities, legislative requirements, future growth projections.
According to city staff, the current Official Plan is over 45 years old (approved by the Province in 1980). Since then, direction from the Province has evolved and changed multiple times, much like the City of St. Thomas. A new and more modern Official Plan will better allow the City to meet the current and future needs of the community.
Recent provincial changes are requiring the creation of a more streamlined development approvals process. The updated Official Plan will bring the city’s policies more in line with current planning practices and other various provincial requirements, while ensuring that the city is still able to influence the types of growth, development, and communities that residents, businesses and visitors want to be a part of.
In addition, this updated direction will better align with types of development that the City is seeing today and support new types of businesses and developments that the community would like to see moving into the future.
As part of the undertaking, an Official Plan open house will be held May 28 from 6 until 8 p.m. at Memorial Arena.
A background presentation will be held at 6 p.m.
For more information on the Official Plan review, you can visit the city’s webpage at http://stthomas.ca.
Written by Ian McCallum
