A once-in-a-decade chance for Moncton residents to help shape development.
City officials have officially launched a review of their municipal plan and zoning bylaw.
The plan guides growth and development over the next decade, while the bylaw implements the policies that make up the plan.
“Every 10 years we look at our current municipal plan policy, see what’s working, see what can be changed, see what we need to fix in order to move the city into a direction where we want to support growth and development,” said Josh Davies, manager of long range policy planning for the city.
“But it’s not just about building permits and housing. It’s a lot about heritage, it’s about active transportation, it’s about the environment, it’s about all types of things that the City of Moncton is involved with.”
Record population growth
The comprehensive review of the existing documents, which were adopted in 2014, comes as the city tries to keep up with record population growth.
Davies said the city’s population has reached levels they were not expecting for several more years.
“With a population of 100,000 or slightly greater, that was what we had looked at for the time being 2031, so we’ve gone ahead six years in terms of our projections,” he said.
“The projections we had set up originally were considered to be high at the time, around 2.5 per cent, but with recent years of five per cent and above, we’ve accelerated our growth into the 2031 bracket.”
Months-long process
The entire process to update the municipal plan and zoning bylaw, from start to finish, is expected to take between 18 and 24 months.
Davies said residents will have the chance to offer their input at several points throughout the process.
The first is next Tuesday, when two vision workshops will take place at Legends at the Moncton Coliseum from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.
Opportunities for engagement will also be posted on the Let’s Chat Moncton project page.
“In order for us to do a very good job of this work, we really need the public to be engaged,” said Davies.
