5 www.georgianbay.ca GBA UPDATE Fall 2023 Municipal Planning Comparison Project As more intensive development pushes north, GBA believes it is vital that municipalities maintain the ability to protect the Georgian Bay coastline and its sensitive environments while also balancing other goals such as growth, attainable housing, and sound municipal services. In 2021, the GBA launched the Municipal Planning Comparison Project (MPCP), in consultation with the Township of the Archipelago (TOA), Township of Carling (TOC), Township of Georgian Bay (TGB), Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI), and Municipality of Killarney (MOK). The MPCP compared the strategic plans, official plans and comprehensive zoning bylaws of the coastal municipalities through the lens of “coastal protection.” The project focused on the policies and bylaws that fall within the coastal designations and any topic related to development that would impact the coastline. Findings: GBA identified similarities, differences, and gaps across the coastal municipalities’ regulations. The main differences are in the waterfront residential and commercial lot requirements. This includes lot and island minimum size, maximum coverage, minimum frontage, and setbacks. We shared our findings in the executive summary posted at bit.ly/MPCP_ES and in a full comparison posted at bit.ly/MPCP-report. GBA also presented our findings to each municipality's council (view the presentation bit.ly/MPCP-ppt). A major goal of the MPCP report was to encourage municipalities to prioritize protecting the coastline when reviewing their planning regulations. The report gives municipalities a tool to review and compare each other's coastal building policies and bylaws, and other requirements related to development that impact the coastline. GBA hopes this will trigger discussions around sound planning standards on development in the coastal area, and possibly lead to better alignment in the standards. After completing the report and delegations, the Coastal Protection Committee hopes to engage municipalities on several priority development rules on the coastline. We aim to facilitate discussion with the municipalities on these issues to see how coastal protection might be enhanced. We should also discuss how aligning policies might help the municipalities to defend their planning regulations when they are challenged by applicants for new building. Septic System Guide See page 8 for more about our Septic System Guide. WATER GBA Delivers Two More Coastal Protection Committee Projects Municipal Planning Comparison Project and Septic System Guide completed By John Carson, Wah Wah Taysee Association and Cosette Shipman, GBA Coastal Protection Project Coordinator
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