Official Plan Review
Charlie Toman
Program Lead - MCR
City Hall, 4th Floor
71 Main St W, Hamilton
Call 905-546-2424 ext 5863 or
Email grids2-mcr@hamilton.ca
The City is updating its Growth Management Strategy (GRIDS 2) and will also be completing a Municipal Comprehensive Review.
Municipalities review their Official Plans on a regular basis to ensure they remain up to date, reflect current provincial policy, and represent the long-term vision of the municipality.
The City of Hamilton's Rural Hamilton Official Plan and Urban Hamilton Official Plan were approved by the Ontario Municipal Board and came into effect on March 7, 2012 and August 16, 2013, respectively.
The Planning Act, the Places to Grow Act, and the Greenbelt Act all contain municipal requirements to undertake Official Plan reviews and conformity exercises to ensure the City’s official Plan reviews and conformity exercises to ensure the City’s official plans are reflective of community goals and objectives, and that they implement the provincial policies contained in the Provincial Policy Statement, the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, and the Greenbelt Plan.
Changes to the Official Plans that implement provincial policies are referred to as a Municipal Comprehensive Review or the “Conformity Review”. Changes that are reflective of community goals and objectives are referred to as the “Official Plan Review - Local Context”.
The Official Plan Review is not intended to be a rewrite of the City’s Official Plans, but rather a targeted update to only those sections and policies that require changes to address provincial policies and significant locally-identified issues. The organization and structure of the Official Plans will remain the same.
The City has also undertaken an update to its Growth Related Integrated Development Strategy, known as GRIDS 2, which is a long-term growth strategy to allocate forecasted population and employment growth to the year 2051. Many of the studies that are required as part of the City’s growth strategy are also part of the City’s Municipal Comprehensive Review. As such, the Municipal Comprehensive Review has taken place concurrently with GRIDS 2, which has the benefit of combining the public and stakeholder consultation into one process, and efficiently utilizes staff time and resources. As part of this process, the City undertook a Land Needs Assessment, Urban Growth Survey, and Employment Land Review.
The outcome of the Municipal Comprehensive Review Phase 1a and GRIDS 2 has been implemented through Official Plan Amendments to the Urban (OPA 167) and Rural Hamilton Official Plan (OPA 34).
Flow chart depicts the City’s Municipal Comprehensive Review Process, as it relates to the Growth Strategy GRIDS 2 process.
Project Phases
The OP Review has been broken down into 4 project phases, each resulting in separate Official Plan Amendments. Review of the City’s Official Plan policies will occur at the same time as the GRIDS 2 project completes the necessary steps to determine how and where the City will accommodate additional growth.
- Appendix A - Draft Urban Hamilton Official Plan Amendment - Revised May 5, 2022
- Appendix B - Draft Rural Hamilton Official Plan Amendment
- Appendix C - Public Consultation Summary Document
- Appendix C1 - First Nations and Indigenous Communities Comments - Summary of Discussions
- Appendix C2 - Agency Comments - Email
- Appendix C3 - Stakeholder Comments - Email - Revised May 5, 2022
- Appendix C4 - Public Comments - Email
- Appendix C5 - Public Comments - Engage Hamilton
- Appendix C6 - Public and Stakeholder Engagement Round 4 - Spring 2022 - Addendum
- Appendix D - Revisions to Proposed Amendments to the UHOP Text - By Topic Area - Municipal Comprehensive Review - Revised May 5, 2022
- Appendix D1 - Revisions to Proposed Amendments to UHOP Schedules, Appendices and Maps - Municipal Comprehensive Review - Revised May 5, 2022
- Appendix E - Revisions to Proposed Amendments to RHOP Schedules, Appendices and Maps - Municipal Comprehensive Review
- Appendix F - Permitted and Proposed Uses in Existing Low Density Residential Zones
- Appendix G - Relationship between Converted Dwellings, SDUs, and D-SDUs
- Appendix H - Proposed Amendments to the Former Community Zoning By-laws
January 11, 2022 (January 19, 2022 - Council) - Municipal Comprehensive Review/Official Plan Review – Proposed Amendments to the Urban Hamilton Official Plan and Rural Hamilton Official Plan (PED21067(a))
- Appendix A - Proposed UHOP Amendment
- Appendix B - Proposed RHOP Amendment
- Appendix C - Growth Management Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C1 - Employment Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C2 - Cultural Heritage Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C3 - Provincial Plans Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C4 - Housing Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C5 - Climate Related Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C6 - Urban Structure Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C7 - Infrastructure Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix C8 - Transportation Topic Area Amendments Table
- Appendix D - Glossary Updates
- Appendix E - Proposed Amendments to Urban Hamilton Official Plan Schedules, Appendices and Maps
- Appendix F - Table of Departments Circulated by Topic Area
- Appendix G - Table of Proposed Amendments to the Rural Hamilton Official Plan
- Appendix H - Table of Proposed Amendments to Rural Hamilton Official Plan Schedules, Appendices and Maps
- Appendix I – Table of Proposed Amendments to Zoning By-laws to the Former Communities
- Appendix J – MCR / GRIDS 2 Workplan
May 5, 2021 - Municipal Comprehensive Review/Official Plan Review Work Plan (PED21067)
- May 2021: General Issues Committee: Commencement of Official Plan Review
- Fall 2021: Staff Drafting of Conformity Review Official Plan Amendments
- January 2022: Planning Committee: Draft MCR Conformity Review - Official Plan Amendments and Authorization to Consult, Public Open House (Non-statutory): Public and Stakeholder Consultation on Draft Conformity Official Plan Amendments
- February - March 2022: Public and stakeholder consultation
- May 17, 2022: Planning Committee: Special Meeting and Statutory Public Meeting for MCR / OP Review (Sec. 26 Planning Act: Draft Conformity Official Plan Amendments)
- June 2022: Submission of Conformity Official Plan Amendments to the Province (Urban Focus)
Public Consultation on Phase 1: Conformity Review – Urban Focused Review has concluded.
Visit engage.hamilton.ca/grids2mcr for more information.