The City of Weyburn hosted an Open House event on Monday at City Hall, to allow the public an opportunity to voice concerns and provide input for what they want to see in the future in Weyburn.

City Manager Matthew Warren said it was a fairly good turnout, with around 25 in attendance over the three-hour come and go event, which was held to inform to Official Community Plan (OCP) and Zoning Bylaw review.

Warren said the plan that hasn't been reviewed for some time.

"The last time we did an OCP review was 2003," he said. "That should be reviewed every five to eight years, and it's something we're going to start doing from now on. But the big thing for us is to make sure that we have a plan."

"It helps us create budgets, it helps us long-term plan for our residential growth, our commercial growth, our industrial growth." 

Warren shared an example of what eventually results from an OCP.

"If you look at our future plans for north of the City [from 2003], and you look at what happened in the subdivision by Assiniboia Park [Elementary School], that was the part of the original plan last time," he noted. "They talked about what they wanted to do for future growth, we have certain boundaries within our jurisdiction, and that was a growth that came from that. So when you see all the new homes that are up by there, that's from discussions that happened in the last official community plan review."

Warren noted their goal is to achieve two bylaws that will enhance existing land use policies and supporting development related regulations, and align with City Council's strategic goals for continued and sustainable community growth.

He said it's for this reason the zoning restrictions are part and parcel with the Official Community Plan.

"When you're looking at zoning, it all depends on where you can put things within the community, and regulations, how you do those, and how you fall within what the province requires of you for that as well," he explained. "So these plans do tie to what you want to do in the future, how you want to grow in the future. So that's a good example of what happened in 2003, is that that growth happened because of what happened with that plan."

The new Official Community Plan is expected to be completed by March of 2020.

Warren said, in addition to the input from the community as resident stakeholders, they have also received input from previous OCP and zoning bylaws, the City of Weyburn Strategic Plan, Planning & Development Act of 2007, the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the local school divisions, the R.M. of Weyburn, Weyburn Regional Economic Development, Weyburn Planning District, City Administration staff, and City Council.

"We also reviewed plans, so there's district plans, so the R.M. of Weyburn and the City of Weyburn have regional planning commissions that we're a part of," Warren noted. "R.M. of Weyburn has their own plan as well, so we have to make sure we tie ours into what they want to do as well, and what we want to do for us, for the future."

He said the OCP is also informed by the Regional Transportation Study, which is currently wrapping up now. The study is a collaboration with the R.M. of Weyburn within the District Planning Commission, and with the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.

They also use information from past studies.

"We had one done a few years ago from StanTec," Warren shared. "Same kind of thing gets put into this as well, past plans we've done for the recreation and parks facilities go into this report as well. So it's all-emcompassing."

He added the OCP, which is expected to be completed in March 2020, will help inform future Councils on the direction Weyburn will go as a City. The plan was awarded in April 2019 to P3Architecture of Regina.

Find a link to the Approval Process HERE.