North Concept Plan

Background

The North Concept Plan focuses on a key area of the P4G Planning District where development pressure and development potential is high, and where four P4G partners have joint interests in land use and servicing. The plan area is located in a northern corridor of the P4G Planning District and includes Highways 11, 12 and 16 and is situated between the northern boundary of Saskatoon and the southern boundaries of Martensville and Warman.

The goal of the North Concept Plan is to assist in the implementation of P4G’s vision for the region, ensuring that growth proceeds in a balanced and rational manner, identifying the future land uses, servicing components and major road networks required to support proposed rural and urban development. The North Concept Plan will act as a framework to assess development proposals and assist the P4G municipalities with decision-making. The plan area has high growth potential and is expected to accommodate a large portion of the employment and population growth needed to reach regional targets.

The City of Saskatoon Planning Project Services was contracted to prepare the North Concept Plan on behalf of the P4G partners.

Engagement

Engagement meetings and one-on-one sessions were held with rights holders and stakeholders including various municipal departments, provincial agencies and ministries, First Nations, utility providers, the Saskatoon Airport Authority and Wanuskewin Heritage Park. These meetings took place through 2019 and 2020 with the goal of identifying opportunities and constraints, and what was envisioned for the plan area.

Information on previous public engagement can be found under Past Events.

Land Use Overview

The North Concept Plan divided the plan area into four distinct planning cells defined by major transportation routes. Within the cells, the high level P4G District Official Community Plan (OCP) land uses have been further delineated, for example from ‘rural commercial/industrial’ to specific areas for rural light to heavy industrial, and rural commercial development. The cells ensure a compatibility with adjacent land uses, and have transitional land use buffers to minimize nuisance.

Details on the planning cells can be found in section 4.3 in the North Concept Plan, and are outlined as:

• Cell 1 is in the southwest portion of the plan area, west of Highway 16, and comprises the Yellowhead and Bizhub industrial parks, currently developed to a rural standard. The cell is directly north of the Saskatoon Airport, residential development is restricted in the area due to the Airport’s noise exposure forecasts. The cell is further restricted by 4-kilometer and 8-kilometer buffer zones, regulating open water storage and developments that may attract wildlife.
• Cell 2 is bounded by Highway 16 and Highway 12. Consisting entirely of areas dedicated to future urban growth, the majority of Cell 2 will be developed as complete urban residential neighborhoods, with a small portion adjacent to Highway 12 identified for urban commercial and light industrial.
• Cell 3 is centrally located between Highway 12 and Highway 11, and the municipal boundaries of Martensville to the north and Saskatoon to the south. It includes a central urban and rural heavy industrial area, with a transition to light industrial to provide compatibility with adjacent land uses.
• Cell 4 is located along the eastern portion of the plan area. It contains existing agricultural operations in the northern portions, which are expected to remain long term. The remaining portion of the cell will consist of several urban residential neighborhoods anchored by a mixed-use node and complemented to the south by a large urban commercial area. An urban mixed use node is also centrally located within the future urban residential area. The Cell is adjacent to Opimihaw Creek, much of the Green Network Study Area and Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

Rural, interim development will continue to be accommodated in future urban growth areas where urban servicing will not occur in the short or medium term. It is intended that rural development be either of a temporary nature or be designed to integrate with future urban land uses and infrastructure and ensure the costs of urban growth can be recovered. Urban development will typically be guided by the logical extension of urban services and infrastructure, with the phasing ultimately determined by the prioritization of growth for each respective municipality. Collaboration between municipalities will ensure future growth and land use decisions will reflect the needs and aspirations of the region, and ensure costs and benefits are shared in a fair and equitable way.

Servicing Overview

Transportation, potable water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure servicing will be achieved through a coordinated regional approach as outlined in section 6 in the North Concept Plan. Servicing recommendations are categorized as follows:

• Regional recommendations are intended to be applied across the entire plan area, regardless of whether the land is intended to be urban or rural.
• Urban recommendations are intended to be applied to the future urban growth areas, with future servicing in mind.
• Rural recommendations, while still regionally oriented, are intended to account for areas that are identified for future rural growth.

The North Concept Plan proposes a future transportation network based on the current Township and Range grid system, with major transportation corridors and a hierarchy of arterial roadways that will support existing uses and future development.

In the future, portions of the plan area will be serviced by primary water mains extending from Saskatoon City limits, requiring additional fill mains, a reservoir, and water treatment capacity from a second water treatment plant. Rural areas will continue to be serviced by regional utility providers.

A future sanitary sewer system that will service future urban areas will consist of one, continuous sanitary sewer system where upstream parts of the system must rely on downstream parts to handle the flow. Rural areas will continue to be serviced by on-site independent systems.

The storm water system will be designed to follow the natural slope of the land, which provides the lowest cost, easiest-to-construct system complemented by a network of preserved wetlands and water bodies.  Development must maintain the existing natural sub-catchment areas and drainage paths to ensure that there are no adverse effects on upstream or downstream properties.

Corridors for infrastructure and for utilities (e.g. high pressure gas transmission and overhead electrical transmission lines) are currently established in the plan area. Given the projected population and anticipated land uses, there will be a need for utility improvements; policies in the North Concept Plan provide direction for future utility and infrastructure corridors.

Given the substantial costs for future urban servicing and transportation infrastructure, regional coordination is required to ensure the transition to future urban transportation networks, water and wastewater systems, and storm water is planned, developed, and paid for in the most cost efficient, fair, and equitable manner. The establishment of a regional cost recovery model will be a key element of achieving this.

Proposed Category Changes to the P4G District Land Use Map

During municipal discussions on the North Concept Plan, a number of high-level land use category changes and swaps of rural and urban growth areas were identified. Through review and analysis by the consultant, it was determined that these alterations were supportable. The North Concept Plan proposes three land use category changes in section 4.4 which need to be reflected in amendments to Schedule B – District Land Use and Schedule C – Future Urban Growth Areas in the P4G OCP.

Proposed category changes to the P4G District Land Use Map include:

• NE 25-37-06-W3: Currently designated as urban residential, the North Concept Plan proposes a change to urban commercial/industrial taking into account the interim nature of the parcel until the future Saskatoon Freeway is constructed, as a future interchange is proposed on the parcel.
• NW ¼ of 10-38-5 W3: re-designating 40 acres of land from rural commercial/industrial to regional infrastructure, to accommodate the Saskatoon Fire Department’s fire training facility.
• SE ¼ 9-38-5-W3, S ½ 10-38-5-W3 and 11-38-5-W3, NW ¼ 2-38-5-W3: proposes a swap of rural and urban growth areas for lands in between Highway 11 and 12 located to form a more contiguous extent of existing Corman Park and future urban growth areas.

North Concept Plan Implementation

The North Concept Plan will be used to guide land use and development decisions including proposals to rezone or subdivide land, establish discretionary uses, or amend the text of the P4G District Zoning Bylaw.  It will also be used to guide the partner municipalities’ P4G capital project priorities including regional transportation, servicing and cost recovery plans.

Some of the recommendations for future work for P4G that needs to be reviewed and prioritized includes:

• Completion of additional regional servicing studies;
• Drafting design guidelines and regional municipal servicing standards;
• Establishing a regional cost recovery model;
• Future secondary planning including neighbourhood concept plans; and
• Periodic review and updates to the North Concept Plan to reflect current priorities and circumstances until the build-out of the plan area is achieved.

This work will be reviewed by the P4G partners for recommendations in the annual work plans and multi-year budget cycles.