Rory Baksh from Dillon Consulting gave a brief presentation to about 40 people regarding why the City of Kingston is engaging in an Official Plan update, the timeline for this update and how we as residents can comment. He stated that Kingston’s official plan is already “very, very good” and that this process was more about tweaking. He noted that a critical aspect of this update is aligning Kingston’s Official Plan with the 2014 Provincial Policy Statement. Some areas that were specifically presented through the displays were focused on stable neighbourhoods, affordable housing, urban design and resiliency.
The question period demonstrated many citizen concerns, including but not limited to:
- concerns about the consultation processes and how effective they are on the outcome
- asking if the WSE can be reflected as under review rather than assumed that it will be built
- the importance of having council make stronger commitments to abide by the Official Plan
- the importance of having stronger language regarding implementing goals of the plan
- concerns about creating one zoning bylaw and the implications it will have on various regions in Kingston
- asking if the city can implement a maximum height for buildings, like Washington DC has implemented (theirs is 10 stories)
Comments on the current draft close on August 16, 2015, and the second draft will be available for pubic viewing in October; another public meeting will be held in November.
WellingtonX will be asking opponents of the WSE to write in and comment on problematic aspects of the OP draft; stay tuned!
— Sayyida Jaffer
wellington x 