Windsor's OPR - A real opportunity

On Thursday, we published our first introduction to the city of Windsors five year review of our Official Plan (OPR). This is such an opportunity for the residents of this city to help establish our collective vision of our community that it needs to be looked at in depth and given much more attention than our "traditional" media outlets are willing to devote to it. Today, we will look at the work that has been completed to date and the recommendations this work has put forward.

To begin with, let's look at exactly what the Official Plan is and what makes it such a powerful document. By the cities own words, the "Official Plan tells how land will be used in the City. An Official Plan is extremely important because it:

- Outlines the future vision of the city
- Establishes policies that help to achieve orderly growth and development
- Shows where sewers, water mains, parks, roads, sidewalks and other services will go in the City
- Gives a framework for other policies and regulations, such as zoning by-laws
- Helps people know what they can do with their property"

This pretty much describes everything that makes a city, doesn't it? The defining phrase of this entire excercise is the future vision of the city. Who is responsible for defining this vision? In a true representative democracy, it is you and I, Windsor's citizens, who should have the final say in the kind of city we want to live in and the route we need to take to get there.

So, this is why ...Scale Down making such a big fuss over the OPR.

The OPR has been broken down into three phases. "Looking Back" was presented to council in February of 2007 and was comprised of research and analysis that identified, described and discussed the existing conditions, trends and known challenges that face Windsor. This work culminated in the Looking Back Synthesis Report, which summarized the following summary reports: Legislation, Social Conditions, Economic Conditions, Natural Environment, Infrastructure, Transportation and Built Form.

Like so many planning documents before it, this document contains a tremendous amount of progressive policy recommendations and insight. Everything from intensifying our built form to mitigating our impacts on fish habitat. This document addresses 124 shortcomings identified throughout the "Looking Back" process, including;

- Additional information requirements for development applications,
- New definition of community improvement,
- Defining more clearly what is meant by "healthy communities",
- Setting targets for Official Plan as per PPS (Provincial Policy Statement) for affordable housing,
- Proactive support for social and income integration,
- Strengthening the Environmental Evaluation Report process,
- "No negative impact" and setbacks for development,
- Agricultural permissions in natural heritage areas,
- Green space in areas of intensification,
- City must be the focus of growth

I think one of the more exciting things I read in the synthesis report (in response to the provinces Bill 51, the Planning and Conservation Land Statue Law Amendment Act) is the ability to investigate the establishment of a Local Appeal Body, which would deal with minor variances and consent appeals in place of the Ontario Municipal Board. I find this exciting because it puts more power in the hands of the people who live in the community in question, as opposed to the OMB which is so far removed from local issues that they cannot help but impose status quo solutions to problems they cannot possibly understand to the degree that the local residents do. In addition, Bill 51 requires the need for the Official Plan to justify settlement area expansion by establishing policies addressing land supply, natural environment, community service facilities, parks, infrastructure, fiscal impact, etc., as criteria for evaluating settlement area expansions. Once again, the need to establish the communities vision for their community will determine exactly how these policies translate into real-world development.

As far as planning documents go, there's very little fault to be found in this one. It offers up enough progressive policies to keep the community activists happy and enough language that perpetuates the status quo to keep the suburbanites from worrying about the future of their neighbourhoods. Mind you, I am still in the process of disseminating everything that I have read, the most bothersome aspect of the OPR process so far is the lack of identifiable vision for our community. Granted, the "Looking Back" segment of the process has been identifying weaknesses, I feel that it should all build towards a mutually agreed upon goal for the type of city that we all want to inhabit.

Perhaps when we begin to examine the next phase, "Moving Forward" (in our next installment of the OPR overview) we will begin to see a roadmap to a progressive vision for Windsor developing.