Steinbach wants your input on their Official Community Plan

The City of Steinbach is updating the Official Community Plan (OCP) and Zoning By-law. They held a Community Visioning Workshop last week on Wednesday, Sept. 27. 

An OCP sets out a community’s vision for the future, contains plans and policy statements that address physical, social, environmental, and economic objectives, describes how and where the community wants land to be developed, and contains measures for implementation.  

A Zoning By-law is a tool that helps implement the OCP, sets out specific rules for the use of land and buildings, and the location and form of buildings, divides the City into zones, and establishes a system of permits and procedures for development. 

At the workshop, the city presented information and provided residents the opportunity to share their vision for the future of the planning district (you can still share your thoughts using the survey by clicking here, or scrolling to the bottom of the article).

Deputy Mayor Michael Zwaagstra says the main purpose of the workshop was to get the community engaged and involved in the planning process. 

“We want to be able to identify the values, ideas, and recommendations that residents have, so we want to get as much public input as possible.”  

In the presentation, they noted population growth will heavily impact the land use designations in the OCP. 

Steinbach’s population in 2021 was 17,806, and the estimated population for 2041 is almost double that at 34,085. 

The City of Steinbach needs to ensure enough land is designated for residential uses to support this population growth, and at the same time, ensure there is enough land designated for commercial and industrial uses to provide employment opportunities within the community. 

To accommodate the population growth, approximately 6,500 new dwellings will be required. 

Zwaagstra says the city needs to plan on a long-term basis for future growth. 

“As Steinbach continues to grow, we need to make sure that we are planning appropriately for future residential development, commercial, industrial, and also dealing with things such as accessibility, walkability, transportation,” he says. “These are all things that we have to take into consideration. And as Steinbach continues to grow, it becomes even more important that we plan properly for this.” 

Under provincial legislation, the city is required to update their OCP every five years. 

The city will be drafting the OCP and Zoning By-law from now until December. 

Zwaagstra says it takes a few months as it is a very in-depth process. 

“In this update we're doing a complete overhaul of the OCP and the Zoning By-law. We're not just simply making some small updates, we are looking to make significant adjustments,” he says. “The current format, the OCP was created back in 2010. In fact, I was on council at the time, I remember that was a major overhaul.” 

He explains there is a lot that needs to be done with a major overhaul.

“There's a background study that has to happen which is in the process of being drafted and the city has to work with consultants during this process. We want to make sure that we do this properly. Because it's an important document, we need to make sure we take the time necessary to have everything lined up properly.” 

If you were unable to attend the workshop, a copy of the presentation slides and a survey containing the same questions from the workshop can be found at the bottom of this page: Attend the Community Visioning Workshop Today! (steinbach.ca)  

“We want to know what people's opinions are regarding the city and our future growth. The more input we get, the better we are able to gauge where people would like for our city to go,” says Zwaagstra. “Council will be looking at this very closely, we have staff that are working very hard on this, we have consultants that we've hired that are helping, and the more public feedback that we get, the better able we are to make good decisions going forward.” 

Please note, the survey will close on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

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