Envisioning Brantford – Municipal Comprehensive Review – Part 1: Employment Strategy, Intensification Strategy, Housing Strategy and Land Needs
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The City of Brantford started its Official Plan Review in 2013. To date, the City has hosted visioning sessions, prepared technical background papers and created a Draft Official Plan (Version 1, issued in July 2016). In 2016, the Official Plan process was put on hold while the Municipal Boundary Adjustment Agreement between the City and Brant County was finalized and pending updates to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The lands transferred to the City are referred to, in this report, as the Boundary Adjustment Lands. The City of Brantford’s Official Plan Review process was resumed in 2017 and includes a Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) as input to the City’s new Official Plan. An MCR is a new Official Plan or an Official Plan amendment initiated by the City, which comprehensively applies the policies of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Certain matters are only to be considered through an MCR. These matters include conversion of employment lands to non-employment uses, determining appropriate employment densities through an employment strategy, establishing alternative intensification targets through an intensification strategy, establishing alternative Designated Greenfield Area (DGA) density targets and expanding a Settlement Area boundary. These matters must be assessed and determined before the City can adopt a new Official Plan. The purpose of this MCR Part 1 Report is to document the first components of the MCR. Key outcomes and findings described in this report include: •
the recommended density of employment lands;
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the identification of employment lands to be converted to non-employment uses;
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the amount of employment lands needed to accommodate the 2041 forecasts;
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the recommended alternative Built-up Area intensification target;
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the recommended refinement of the boundary of the Downtown Brantford Urban Growth Centre;
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the recommended Designated Greenfield Area density target;
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the amount of additional community lands (which includes residential, commercial, institutional and open space) needed to accommodate the 2041 forecasts; and
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the amount of the Boundary Adjustment Lands that need to be brought into Brantford’s Settlement Area boundary to accommodate forecast population and employment growth to the year 2041.
The MCR Part 2 Report will identify what part of the Boundary Adjustment Lands will be included in the Settlement Area boundary expansion to accommodate the identified need for urban lands. 1
