Council passes new growth plan, aims to remove ‘politically driven’ approvals of development

Regina city council passed the plan to add over 52,000 new homes over the next 25 years.

Regina city council has passed amendments to its official community’s growth plan.

“Passing this growth plan is an incredible win for the city,” Mayor Chad Bachynski told reporters following Wednesday’s council meeting.

It comes following an administration review of Regina’s Official Community Plan (OCP).

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Within that review, the city found growth timelines set in 2013 which projected Regina’s population to reach 300,000 people by 2040 and needs to add 52,300 additional housing units to the city’s supply.

Administration proposed 21 revisions to the city’s current OCP to council as its first step towards its broader plan.

The new approach uses wasterwater capacity as a benchmark to greenlighting new developments, removing barriers to advancing new neighbourhoods.

“The way it was before was very politically driven,” Mayor Bachynski said. “When you look at it, you can see how sporadic the sequence of development was. This new growth plan is a financially responsible way to grow our city in a way we leverage as much of the dollars we put into the infrastructure.”

Administration says they collaborated with industry partners and developers to formulate their recommendations to council.

The item passed with unanimous approval from councillors.