Pelham Planning & Development

Planning Policy

Municipalities, like people, need to plan for the future. Planning is the management of land and resources to ensure a healthy community -- economically, socially and environmentally.

Good planning ensures orderly development and the choice of appropriate locations for homes, shops, parks, offices, and factories, supported by a network of roads, water mains, sewers, and transit. Good planning also takes into consideration the need to preserve heritage structures, conserve energy, and protect natural features.

The Planning Division prepares and maintains the Official Plan, Zoning By-law and detailed neighbourhood and community plans. We process and make recommendations to Council on applications to amend the Official Plan, and Zoning By-law and/or subdivide lands and we issue Site Plan Approval. We also process and provide comments to outside agencies on a variety of other development applications.

The Role of the Division

The role of the Planning Department is to facilitate orderly land development within the Town. The health, safety and physical and economic well-being of all of the residents is of paramount importance. This requires that development be analyzed relative to compatibility between competing land uses. It also requires that the concerns and interests of regulating agencies are co-ordinated in an orderly and timely manner.

To achieve orderly development, there are two separate, but equally important functions of land use planning.

• Policy (Long-range Planning) is the identification and establishment of long-range goals for the orderly development of the Town. Policies to achieve those goals are contained in the Official Plan of the Town.
• Development Control (Current Planning) is the implementation of the Official Plan Policies and other governmental regulations, primarily through the Zoning By-law, Plans of Subdivision and Site Plan Control.

The preparation of policies and regulations is deemed to be proactive in that it anticipates the future needs of the Town and attempts to ensure that conflicts will not occur and that the infrastructure will be in place to accommodate the proposed development. The Department is responsible to ensure that the concerns and requirements of agencies, departments, individuals and groups are addressed by co-ordinating their efforts and attempting to resolve their differences.

The Planning Department supplies zoning information to applicants and the general public and provides comments on development proposals or applications to various agencies such as Committee of Adjustment, Zoning By-law Amendments, Severances and Niagara Escarpment Development Control Applications.
 

Why get involved?

Planning affects the life of all Pelham residents. That is why the planning process makes room for public opinion. Ontario municipalities are required by law to ask for input from the public on important planning decisions, by notifying members of the public about development proposals, holding public meetings, and allowing appeals of planning decisions.