Rod Regier, Commissioner, Planning, Development and Legislative Services and Danielle De Fields, Director, of Community Planning provided a presentation, which reviewed the objectives of the plan, community conversations, policy refinements and the next steps in the process of adopting a Regional Official Plan Amendment of this scope. A copy of the presentation is attached to the minutes.
R. Regier shared a summary of the responses provided for specific topics, such as Airbnb, Waterloo Region comparisons to the G7, and confirming the amount of land added through the last ROP and subsequently developed. He also provided a summary of community engagement throughout the process, which has included individual meetings, website visits on EngageWR, surveys, public events, presentations to Council, social media, and print ads and articles. R. Regier stressed that the ROP is a key tool to help the Region of Waterloo thrive in the future and that it is our responsibility to create an equitable, thriving, and sustainable community.
R. Regier shared that staff have had a tremendously positive response to the 15 minute neighbourhood concept and that communities will be built to support this type of convenience, in both cities and townships. He also shared that the ROP is preparing to meet more people's housing needs through a more diverse housing mix and noted the importance of thinking holistically about building what meets the needs of our full community, including members of the workforce that are highly paid and less well paid. R. Regier also confirmed that the LNA analysis adheres to provincial methodology.
D. De Fields provided an overview of the amendments, including policy updates. She noted that policy updates include new language around children and youth, a new policy regarding "priority consideration" in Ayr, and a refined missing middle policy and definition. D. De Fields outlined the next steps in the ROP process, which include consideration for adoption at today's Planning and Works meeting on August 11th, a Special Council meeting on August 18th, which will include a by-law of the adoption to amend the Regional Official Plan, and then staff will send the adopted plan to the Province for approval. She also noted that the 2nd amendment to the Regional Official Plan will be completed in 2022/2023.