3 min read
Written by Krista Long
On April 2, 2011, the City of Waterloo adopted an Official Plan that:
- gives preference to small and mid-size food stores over large-format grocery stores,
- sets a goal of having a food store within 2km of every resident in the City,
- permits community gardens and temporary farmers’ markets in all land use designations.
The strong food policies in the Official Plan are due in no small part to the work of the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, who advocated strongly for the inclusion of food policies in the Region of Waterloo’s Official Plan, with which all municipalities must now comply. The Roundtable then advocated directly to the City of Waterloo on drafts of its Official Plan in September 2011 and March 2012.
The Roundtable presented its comments on the City’s final Official Plan at the April 2nd meeting of Waterloo City Council. It urged the City to include access to locally grown food in its definition of “complete communities” and urged the removal of restrictions to community gardens and temporary farmers’ markets in certain land use designations.
Councillors responded favourably to the Roundtable’s comments, expresssing an interest in supporting community gardens in all land uses, especially employment areas. Councillors urged planning staff to consider the opportunities created on employment lands where staff could grow their own food. They also echoed this support for temporary farmer’s markets, citing a successful market in a residential neighbourhood in Waterloo, and encouraged the plan to support and allow more of these markets throughout the city, and not limit them to certain higher density zones.
City staff came prepared to make amendments to the plan, based on converstaions the previous week they had with the Roundtable and the Community Garden Council. When Councillors asked for revisions, planning staff pulled revisions out of their ‘back pocket’, making it easier to approve the plan with these amendments in order.
Community gardens and temporary farmer’s markets may still be subject to zoning by-laws regulating their specific location, but permitting them in all land uses puts them on the planning radar as important land uses in building healthy communities (they were not even included or talked about in the previous plan!), and gets us one step closer to the Roundtable’s goal of having walkable access to healthy local foods in every neighbourhood throughout Waterloo!
The whole process of advocating for supporting policies in the Official Plan process has been an enlightening and eye opening experience. It has shown me that this truly is a democratic process and that Council is open and supportive of engaged and informed citizens (including advocay groups) to bring issues forward that will help our communities grow in healthy and sustainable ways as we head into the future. We have a say on how our communities are designed, and we should continue to stay engaged and work together toward building healthy communities around food!
Links to more information:
- the Roundtable’s March 20, 2012 letter to City Council
- the Roundtable’s April 2, 2012 presentation to Council
- City of Waterloo Official Plan page (links to various documents on the approval process)
- Staff report to Waterloo Council February 27, 2012
- Staff comments on public input received on Official Plan (see references to food-related comments on pages 8–9, 14–15, 17–23, 25, 65)
- the Roundtable’s September 2011 letter to City Council