EVOLVE WHITE CITY 2045 - White City's Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw

The Town’s Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw were previously adopted in 2014 and received approval from the Ministry of Government Relations in 2015. These important documents are now nine years old and a more up to date development and planning policy framework is required to move the community forward. Due to a prolonged process to attempt to alter the corporate boundaries of the Town, the Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw review and update has been postponed multiple times. In accordance with the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, and at the direction of Council, administration is now proceeding with an update to the documents with no further delay!

What is an Official Community Plan?

An Official Community Plan or OCP, is the document that sets out a desired framework for development in the community. The OCP defines goals and outlines objectives and policies to direct and manage the future of the community. The OCP is the document that guides Council in making municipal decisions by following the established framework for land use, growth and development.

What is a Zoning Bylaw?

The Zoning Bylaw is the tool to make the OCP's goals, objectives and policies a reality. The Zoning Bylaw is a collective set of regulations that gives the Town of White City the ability to enforce land use decisions and reduce land use conflicts for the good of the community.

A new OCP and Zoning Bylaw shall provide for a comprehensive land use plan in line with a 2022 Growth Study prepared by ISL Engineering and with the goal of supporting an integrated, full-service growth community. Once completed, the OCP and Zoning Bylaw will provide the municipality with planning and development policies that align with the Town’s strategic, operational and service priorities and the long-term vision of the municipality.

We Need Your Help!

As good planning is the product of good public consultation, we need your help to ensure the new OCP and Zoning Bylaw represent the collective vision of the community.

The Town of White City wants to ensure stakeholders like you and your family have a say on the future of the community. To achieve this, the Town has completed an engagement plan that includes communication and engagement strategies for the public to take part on the planning process. The engagement plan is comprised of two phases:

• Phase I of the engagement will serve as an information gathering phase. A blend of virtual and in-person options have been considered for this phase. Specifically open houses, workshops, pop-up engagements and a community liaison are recommended as engagement tactics in the first phase.
• Phase II of the engagement will serve as a review of policy and evaluation of the draft OCP and Zoning Bylaw.

Why Planning is Important to You and Your Family!

All municipal land use decisions in the Town of White City have a somewhat direct or indirect effect on the way you and your family live and experience the community. Your sense of belonging, accessibility to services, parks and open spaces, pedestrian networks and preferred modes of transportation are all aspects of your life shaped by land use decisions made for the community at one time or another.

Contrary to the mere adoption of land use regulations with the sole purpose of separating incompatible land uses, White City aims to continue to plan for the future based on a comprehensive plan that is consistent with the community's traditional character, with harmonious new development reinforcing the local sense of place.

The Saskatchewan Professional Planners Institute (SPPI) defines planning as "the process that weighs public interest and works collaboratively to shape decisions about land, resources, and services to create healthy, sustainable, communities". This comprehensive vision on planning, what it is and how it affects our daily lives, is shared by the Town of White City and is better described in the following resource from SPPI.

* Saskatchewan Professional Planners Institute

How Can You Get Involved in the Engagement for this Important Project?

We need your input to ensure the new OCP reflects community values by helping us identify and evaluate community strengths and weaknesses, and the essentials to continue to make White City a great place to live. We want to listen to you and learn from you! Come help our community evolve and march forward at any of the scheduled engagement events.

Phase I Engagement Objectives

• Work directly with the public to identify what information is needed and allow stakeholders to participate in a meaningful way in a current state assessment and gap analysis.
• Work with stakeholders to identify decision criteria, reflecting environmental, social and economic values, to be considered in generating and evaluating OCP and Zoning Bylaw regulations.
• Facilitate dialogue on the key values and identity of the community.
• By July 1, 2023, share an engagement findings report summarizing the information gathered with the public during the first phase of engagement.

Phase I Engagement is now closed. Please check back for our Engagement Summary Report in early July!