Secondary Plans

Every municipality has an Official Plan that provides an overall vision, goals and objectives for the growth and development, protection of resources and construction of infrastructure for sustainable communities.

What is a Secondary Plan?

Secondary Plans can be considered a second layer of the City-wide Official Plan. They include a land use plan with implementing policies that are adopted into the Official Plan to ensure that their intent is legally binding.

Secondary Planning is a specific tool, which:

• Helps understand opportunities and address issues related to land use in certain defined geographic areas.
• Provide specific policies for those areas of the City where more detailed direction is needed for matters beyond the general framework provided by the Official Plan.
• Provide an opportunity to promote consistency in new/developing areas and compatibility within existing areas that require revitalization.

Once a need for a Secondary Plan has been identified, City Planners will:

• Introduce the study to the community to get an understanding of how the residents see their neighbourhood changing and growing.
• Balance the needs and wants of the community against the planning policy guiding growth or redevelopment in the City and the Province.

The City of Hamilton has 31 existing Secondary Plans, which are found in Volume 2 of the Urban Hamilton Official Plan. Several other Secondary Plans are in progress or awaiting final approvals.

View Appendix A - Secondary Plan Index(PDF, 1.38 MB)