City of Kingston Official Plan

[ben]

The City of Kingston is looking for comments on the draft of their Official Plan which outlines the strategic direction of the city up until the year 2026.

Comments on the draft Official Plan will be accepted by the city until Friday, Feb. 27, 2009.

The plan is available here:
http://www.cityofkingston.ca/residen.../draftplan.asp

Or you can download the major part of the document as a pdf file here:
http://www.cityofkingston.ca/pdf/pla...ections1-9.pdf

I thought it would be a good idea to share/collect thoughts about this since there's a lot of information in there relevant to energy/the environment. Note: Anything posted here is not an official comment submitted to the City of Kingston!

I think the major sections relevant to energy/environment are:

Section 2.1 - Sustainable Development which has a goal to:

To protect, conserve, and strategically deploy both the natural, cultural and built resources of the City in a manner that promotes compatibility between different functions; that reduces energy, land or resource consumption in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the objective that all new buildings are carbon neutral by 2020; that encourages sustainable forms of energy production and the use of cultural resources to benefit the public good; that limits the need for undue extension of infrastructure or reliance on the private automobile; that fosters local sources of food which are sustainable; and promotes programmes and practices that will produce increasingly sustainable development in the City.

Section 2.4 - Phasing of Municipal Infrastructure and Transportation which has a goal to:

To provide all areas within the Urban Boundary with a full range of municipal infrastructure, including pedestrian and cycling routes, public transportation and roads over the long term, through orderly extension or expansion. This will be done in a manner that fosters compact development and sustainability, and as it is within the City’s ability to construct, finance and maintain.

Section 4.6 - Transportation with a goal to:

To promote a diverse transportation system for the City through the encouragement of land use patterns, density, road and site design that support walking, cycling, and transit as well as commercial traffic, inter-regional travel, and private vehicles. This will ensure that community resources are accessible to all residents and the City’s health and sustainability are fostered.

Section 6.2 - Energy Conservation and Production which has a goal to:

To be a leader in energy conservation, energy efficiency, and sustainable energy production, with a strong focus on the development of alternative energy and renewable energy systems that are appropriate in type and scale, and that minimize impacts on the natural environment and adjacent land uses.

Here are some of my thoughts:

1. Overall I think the spirit of the document is great. Some statements like: "the objective is to have all new buildings carbon neutral by 2020" (mentioned in the goal of Section 2.1) needs to be expanded upon. This statement is mentioned very early on in the document but I don't think it's mentioned at all in other sections. I'm not even sure what this means: Is it that all new homes must be using carbon neutral electricity/heating sources? Maybe the materials used to construct the home are carbon neutral? Is any of this even practical/possible? If this is what the city means, then why isn't it expanded upon in, for example, the energy section (Section 6.2)?

2. I like the emphasis of building dense urban areas that are more easily serviced by public transportation. I'm not sure if it's part of the plan but I'd like to see an effort to fight urban sprawl.

3. There was a mention in section 2.4.10 of prioritizing facilities and services to encourage walking, cycling and transit before providing new road infrastructure. This is all good but I don't think there's any mention of how exactly they would go about doing this. Surely any new development would focus on roads before cycle paths.

4. I'd like to see more emphasis on cycle paths throughout the city. Maybe even something that says all downtown roads must have bicycle lanes and perhaps even have certain city areas where bikes actually have priority over cars.

5. In the transport section there was talk of giving parking priority to people who car pool. I like this idea but the document doesn't discuss how the city could enforce this (perhaps these sorts of details aren't required in this type of document?)

6. The city clearly wants to move in the direction of clean energy but as far as the energy section goes (Section 6.2), there's no talk (at least I don't think there was) of any targets (like 10% renewable energy target by 2020 or something like that). I think this is a major oversight because it takes responsibility away from the city. Also, it would be nice if there was something in there that said something like: If a new power plant is to be constructed, developers must prove that lower carbon alternatives are impractical.

[Heaven Net]

An Official Plan is a policy document that provides a 20-year blueprint for the future development of a municipality. Revised every five years, the plan establishes goals and a means to achieve them by taking into consideration important land use, social, cultural and economic factors.

The Official Plan is aimed at creating a better living environment within a community. As the Plan deals primarily with the physical aspects of expected growth and development, it also provides an indication of how the municipality and the neighbourhoods will look in twenty years.

The Official Plan is a legal document that is adopted by city council through a by-law and has to be approved by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Planning Staff are currently undertaking review of the draft Official Plan.

While the City of Kingston was amalgamated on Jan. 1, 1998, it is still governed by the three Official Plans of the former municipalities:

* City of Kingston Planning Area Official Plan
* Township of Kingston Official Plan
* Pittsburgh Township Official Plan

The Official Plan affects your everyday life. The plan determines

* where new homes, stores, industries, schools, parks and other land uses will be built;
* how we protect our natural, cultural and heritage resources; and
* how we direct the construction of new infrastructure such as sewers, water mains and roads.

The location of your property will determine which of the three former municipalities' Official Plans apply to you.

The City is currently working towards an updated Official Plan and has released the Recommended Draft Official Plan.