Four-day workshop envisions Peterborough of the future

Peterborough is undergoing a major four-day planning session as the city looks to complete its official plan to help guide development and growth for the next 40 years.

At Peterborough Square on Wednesday afternoon, a working group that included professional planners, architects and citizen groups along with city staff put their heads together and their pens to paper for Day 2 of an extensive planning workshop being called a “design charrette” to help plan the Peterborough of the future.

By 2041, it’s anticipated the city’s population will increase by nearly 32,000 people and will see 14,000 new jobs created. To accommodate the growth, the public’s input is being sought out and it’s all part of creating a new official plan.

“This is kind of the culmination of the public engagement work that we’ve been doing over the past year,” said Jeffrey Humble, the City of Peterborough chief planner. “We’ve been working on engaging the public on all of these attributes and now we’re bringing that vision together. We still have to translate this into policy and that will be translated through our official plan.”

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The official plan will take all the work and input being done from the four-day charrette, as well as all the suggestions and input from the public and break them down into a document that will be published come early June 2019 and will then go before council for approval and adoption.

Details being discussed are wide-ranging and extensive, dealing with everything from complete and healthy communities that include quality designed buildings, to community housing and appropriate intensification targets.

Other themes include environmental sustainability, including the protection of natural heritage systems and improving parks and public gathering spaces while promoting economic strength while improving accessibility and mobility through improved and enhanced roadways, transit systems and bicycle trails, along with sidewalks.

“I think people want Peterborough to be different and they want Peterborough to stand out from the other 24 urban growth centres in the Greater Golden Horseshoe,” said Humble. “And I think in these designs, you are seeing some really great ideas.”

The four-day sessions are focusing on eight nodes and six corridors that have been identified as major streets that should be developed along with neighbourhoods and the downtown core.

The stakeholder group sessions are being administered by The Planning Partnership firm from Toronto and land architect Donna Hinde, who has worked with the city on other projects in the past.

“Following the charrette, we will be preparing refined plans that demonstrate the ideas that came out of this and provide some architectural and urban design plans,” said Hinde.

Some of the guiding principles that are leading the design include developing complete communities while fostering economic strength and environmental stewardship, along with greater connectivity and mobility.

Otonabee Ward Coun. Lesley Parnell is the official plan chair and says the process has been extensive but crucial to creating the city’s future.

“As we know, things will change and as our city grows, we need to make sure it is sustainable in what we do and it meets the needs of our community,” said Parnell.

The design charette and community engagement process continues Wednesday and Thursday, and following each brainstorming session, the public is invited to an open house session from 6:30 to 8 p.m., and is being held in the lower level of the Peterborough Square.

It’s an opportunity where individuals can get some more information and provide their own ideas.