Boards with information on Melfort's proposed policies and regulations are to help Crosby Hanna and Associates receive feedback for the City of Melfort (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).

By Aaron Schulze

Melfort's Community Plan

Melfort seeking public input for new official community plan

May 2, 2019 | 6:03 PM

As the City of Melfort continues to develop a new official community plan and zoning bylaw, residents are encouraged to voice their thoughts on the city’s future.

Crosby Hanna and Associates, a landscape architecture and community planning firm, brought information boards to Melfort City Hall for an open house on April 29. The boards speak to the policies within Melfort’s official community plan and some of the options they’re considering in the zoning bylaws.

Leanne Delong, manager of community planning with Crosby Hanna and Associates, told northeastNOW the process of developing the new official community plan right now is to present the proposed policies and regulations.

“We did have a presentation to council a few weeks back, so tonight is really about soliciting feedback from residents,” Delong said. “Residents will have two weeks or so to continue the discussion, and there’s going to be some avenues where they can access the boards and read them. Both of the draft bylaws are posted on the [City of Melfort’s website].”

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Delong said the boards will stay up in city hall for people to see.

Mayor Rick Lang said the current Melfort official community plan is dated, as it was drafted in 1996.

“The official community plan is basically a road map to define where you’re going and where your growth areas in the city are, both residential and commercial,” Lang said. “You re-define what those are based on the fact the last time you did a community plan was 25 years ago, and a lot of that stuff has been accomplished and you need to look to the future.”

Lang said if there are still valid goals, ideas, and rules in the current community plan, the city can incorporate it into the new plan and add to it. The official community plan is 67 pages and the bylaw amendment is 170 pages.

“The sheer bulk of it is almost overwhelming,” Lang said. “At the committee level it’s probably been worked on for six months already. There’s been adjustments made during that time and this is just another step in the process to move it forward.

The City of Melfort hired Crosby Hanna and Associates to help them develop the official community plan. As a new one is typically created every 20 or 25 years, Lang said most of the current city staff would be inexperienced for this.

“The last time the OCP was done, I don’t think there was anybody in [city hall] that’s still here, maybe Heather Audette. Other than that, I don’t think there was anyone else in the building at that time, and there’s certainly nobody on council that was on council on that time. With respect to experience in the building and on council, this is a new experience for all of us.”

Crosby Hanna and Associates will take the information that’s been gathered and re-work it into an amended community plan, and potentially go through three or four more amendments before it comes to council for final approval. Lang said even at that point if council could question or identify something that they feel should be changed.

Crosby Hanna and Associates will receive feedback until May 15.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow