City gets subdivision planning authority

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2020 (2112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon now has planning authority over subdivisions within its boundaries.

Given royal assent by the province on Dec. 3, Bill 7 makes Brandon the only jurisdiction in Manitoba outside of Winnipeg to have that authority.

The city and the Brandon Chamber of Commerce celebrated the move, calling it a reduction in red tape and an acknowledgment of the importance of the province’s second-biggest city.

“Approval of subdivisions is one of the base authorities of regulating land development because it deals with ownership and the creation of separate titles,” city planning director Ryan Nickel told the Sun. “Now that the City of Brandon will be the only second-approval municipality in the province, it will allow us to do that directly. Very simply, we can process things much faster because they just need to go to our city council and don’t need to go to a planning district board. It allows us to work a little more independently.”

Getting to this point took multiple years of work in collaboration with the province, Nickel said.

The benefits of this new status quo have already started, with the city receiving multiple new subdivision requests that will now be able to be expedited.

“One of the longer-term benefits that we will be looking at is to have a city plan that will be just for the City of Brandon,” said Nickel. “When we were part of the planning district, there was a district plan and often because we were trying to balance all the considerations, maybe it wasn’t as much of a city focus.”

Mayor Rick Chrest said he was glad the bill has finally passed after it didn’t quite make the finish line during the Manitoba Legislature’s previous session earlier this year.

He praised Municipal Relations Minister Rochelle and her staff for their partnership in getting this accomplished as well as the assistance of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.

“This will be one more elimination of some red tape,” he said. “I think this is a good compliment to our professional planners and engineers, many people involved in our Development Services department. This is kind of a feather in their cap that the province recognizes the level of professionalism and accreditation that we do maintain that qualifies us to take this step. I really am proud of them and pleased it’s come together this way.”

Local chamber president Spencer Day gave credit to former president Cathy Snelgrove and former board member Steve McMillan for their hard work helping the city get this bill passed.

“It’s a win for the chamber and the City of Brandon as a whole,” he said. “We have a lot of interaction as the chamber with our construction and development industry and these are issues that have been brought to the table for years.”

Day said bringing decision-making authority to the city will bring a lot of advantages to the local economy.

In short, the city will have greater independence in determining how it wants to grow and change over the years. Nickel said he isn’t sure if there will be a noticeable increase in development, but the development that does go on will be more streamlined.

Brandon’s former partners in the now-defunct Brandon & Area Planning District — the regional municipalities of Elton and Cornwallis — are working with Squires to create their own entity, the Keystone Planning District.

Nickel said Brandon will continue working with Elton and Cornwallis on planning issues that also affect those communities.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark