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Recently, the City of Orillia mayor and council invited residents to share their vision for the future of Orillia by attending a visioning workshop on Nov. 21 or through an online survey.
These two resident engagement opportunities are part of Orillia undertaking a municipal comprehensive review and update of its Official Plan (OP).
Why is it important for residents to express their opinion about an update of Orillia’s OP? The OP is the long-term policy document that guides land-use planning decisions in the city. The OP is the document that determines the types and height of buildings in our wards, neighbourhoods and on each block.
Across Canada there are concerns about the supply and affordability of housing. Orillia is not immune to these concerns. Today our city lacks adequate supply of housing for all income levels and our mayor and council are currently debating short-term solutions. It is the updated OP that will guide council’s decisions for long-term housing solutions.
The development of the updated OP will determine whether our current single-family neighbourhoods should allow four- to six-storey multi-unit buildings, whether eight-, 10-, 12-storey buildings should be allowed in our downtown and waterfront areas, whether retail commercial enterprises should be allowed in our residential neighbourhoods.
These are decisions that could affect every resident. It will be too late for a resident to complain about the consequences of the updated OP once it becomes policy. Now is the time to be involved in the OP update process so that your views are shared and incorporated in the updated OP.
Orillia offers opportunities for residents to express their opinions by participating in council open forums, attending in-person visioning workshops and completing online surveys. However, these opportunities have historically engaged only a small number of residents.
Two hundred participants in a workshop or 1,000 respondents to a survey are considered good levels of participation. But in a municipality of 33,000-plus residents, these opportunities do not engage enough residents to adequately develop policy (OP) that will dictate the evolution of Orillia over the next 10 to 30 years.
The mayor and council must find ways and means to reach out and involve a significantly larger percentage of residents in this process. They cannot sit back and decide on our future OP policy based on the input of only those residents that take the initiative to attend a workshop or complete a survey.
In a city that typically sees less than 40 per cent of eligible voters elect a mayor and council, Orillia falls well below the standard for democratic participation (Canadian Index of Wellbeing) necessary for acceptable resident engagement in decisions that not only affect us day by day but will shape our future.
The development of an updated OP is so important that I challenge councillors to reach out their constituents ward by ward, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, block by block to obtain the opinions of as many residents as possible before council decides the content of the updated OP. It is better that councillors invest in resident engagement prior to deciding policy rather than investing in explaining and rationalizing after the fact. The timeframe for the update of the OP allows for this level, proactive engagement.
Ted Emond
Former mayor and Ward 1 councillor
Orillia
