Highlights from the city’s new 30-year plan

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This article was published 25/03/2024 (911 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s new city plan was released publicly last week in the form of a 100-page PDF made available through the city’s website.

It is framed, as city planners have said since they first started working on the new plan, as a high-level guide for how Brandon should develop over the next 30 years.

After drafting the plan, the city is holding a final round of engagement before city council officially votes on whether to adopt it sometime this spring.

One of the biggest differences between prior city plans and the new one is the scope of municipal planning.

In 2020, the Brandon and Area Planning District was dissolved after the provincial government made the Wheat City the only municipality in Manitoba other than Winnipeg with authority over subdivisions.

In effect, that means Brandon has more local authority over the properties within its boundaries, no longer having to seek subdivision approval from a higher level.

The guidelines in the city plan are broadly summarized in a section titled “Our Vision” before being explored in a bit more depth in three sections: “Healthy City,” “Moving City” and “Growing City.”

The vision section states Brandon residents care about transportation options, municipal services, health, transparency, reconciliation, housing and each other.

Many of the initiatives in the three other sections tie-in to the city’s efforts to secure housing funds from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

For instance, the second subsection under the healthy city section says Brandon will “ensure all zoning and design regulations enable housing choices.” To accomplish that, the city plan says Brandon will promote inclusionary zoning, affordable housing and housing that is accessible to older people and people with disabilities.

Demographic information presented at the beginning of the document says Brandon had a population of 51,530 in 2021. By 2041, the population is expected to climb by 9,136 to 9,878, an increase of 17.8 to 19.3 per cent.

It also says the median price of a home in Brandon increased by around $31,000 from 2016 to 2021, with median rental rates rising by around $140 in the same period.

To accommodate people with varying needs, the plan says Brandon needs to increase how much housing is available on different parts of the housing continuum, from shelter space and transitional housing at one end all the way to market-rate housing on the other.

Small housing developments that are one to two stories tall are recommended by the plan to be along local and collector streets. Medium scale developments like townhouses and low-rise apartments that are two to four stories tall are recommended to be built along local and collector streets as well as near major health services, learning institutions and amenities.

The plan recommends that large housing developments, mid-rise multi-unit apartment buildings four to eight stories tall, should be primarily built downtown.

Other initiatives tie into work already underway by the city and its partners. For example, the healthy city section says Brandon will “support access to potable water, public washrooms and other essential services in public spaces.”

Earlier this year and last year, city council and the Community Wellness Collaborative have had discussions on how to provide 24-7 washroom access at Princess Park and on Pacific Avenue for people experiencing homelessness.

The moving city section calls for Brandon to “design streets that accommodate all modes of transportation.”

The city plan lays out a path for the city to continue its recent infrastructure strategy, saying that to facilitate growth, improvements will be made in south Brandon with incremental improvements for the north and west.

This strategy led the city to approve the building of two new lift stations in southwest Brandon last year to facilitate continued development, though construction has yet to begin.

For areas that don’t have existing or planned infrastructure capacity, the city plan states that development will be considered if developers are willing to pay for the infrastructure up front, the development of the area won’t affect areas already designated for development and ongoing operating costs for the new infrastructure is acceptable to the city.

Around 20 per cent of growth in the city is expected to take place in “established areas” defined on a map of Brandon as being north of Richmond Avenue, south of the Assiniboine River, east of First Street and west of 17th Street East.

In the established areas, the plan says growth should be more intense downtown, around major institutions and collector and arterial streets.

The rest of the growth is expected to take place in “emerging areas” shown on the North Hill, the far west end of Victoria Avenue, the city’s southwest corner and a section east of First Street and south of Richmond Avenue.

The land around Brandon Municipal Airport and the industrial area in the east end are considered to be “employment areas.”

The plan says that in the past decade Brandon has seen 30 per cent of growth take place in the established areas and 70 per cent in emerging areas.

With the development of a new city plan, the plan says the city should also update its various master plans for items like servicing, recreation and capital budgets so they’re aligned.

Currently, the city is reviewing development cost charges it levies on developers as contributions towards infrastructure that will service their developments. It’s the first major rate review since they were first imposed, with only cost of living increases taking place previously.

The new plan encourages the city to continue to update the rates periodically to prevent existing taxpayers from having to shoulder the financial burden of growth.

The full city plan document can be found online at brandon.ca/cityplan

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