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Municipality makes changes to improve development decision-making process

January 20, 2025

January 20, 2025

The County of Prince Edward is introducing several process changes to improve how decisions are made about land use planning applications.

Council approved the changes in November 2024. One of the key goals is to make the Planning and Development Committee process more transparent so that the public knows how they can participate and understands the ways their input will be considered.

In addition, the Municipality is encouraging applicants/agents to hold Public Information Centres (PICs) for large and complex applications in order to address any potential issues or problems early on in the process. To support applicants/agents, the Municipality is offering guidance on hosting successful PICs that best serve the public.

Planning and Development Committee Process

Previously, Planning and Development Committee hosted the statutory public meeting, as required under the Ontario Planning Act, and made a recommendation to Council about the application at the same meeting. Now, the Municipality has implemented a two-step process for considering applications with the goal of fostering better outcomes:

  • Step 1: The Statutory Public Meeting for an application will occur as its own item on the Planning and Development Committee agenda and take place early in the meeting. The applicant/agent will give a presentation about the proposed plan or amendment. Members of the public will then each have up to five minutes to provide oral comments about the application. The public may also submit written comments before the meeting.
  • Step 2: The Planning & Development Committee will consider the application at a future meeting under the “Items for Consideration” portion of the agenda. Municipal staff will write a detailed planning report with a recommendation to the Planning & Development Committee. The report will clearly identify what was heard at the previous Statutory Public Meeting and how those issues were considered. Any member of the public may provide a three-minute comment from the audience at the beginning of the agenda in response to how those issues were considered. The recommendations of the Planning & Development Committee will then be ratified by Council at the next feasible Council meeting.

Applicant-led Public Information Centres

Applicants and/or their agents will now be responsible for leading any public information centres (PICs) rather than municipal staff. While staff may attend applicant-led PICs, the applicant/agent will host and chair these meetings. This will help distinguish between the municipal statutory public meeting and the additional efforts a proponent may make to promote their project and hear from interested parties.

Under provincial legislation, PICs are not required, and municipalities do not have the authority to compel applicants to host them. However, the County of Prince Edward will continue to encourage applicants of complex planning files to host PICs in order to share information about their project and hear from interested parties. The Municipality will also provide applicants/agents with guidelines for hosting and publicizing their PICs.

New process in effect for January 22 Planning and Development Committee meeting

The new process will be in place for the January 22 Planning and Development Committee meeting. The meeting will begin at 6 pm at Shire Hall (332 Picton Main Street) with the live stream on the municipality’s YouTube channel. Statutory public meetings will be held for the following applications:

Following the statutory meetings, Planning and Development Committee will move to receiving comments from the audience and considering any applications. Click here to view the full agenda.

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