FAQs

The integrated approach provides an opportunity to reduce duplication by simultaneously complying with the Planning Act and Class EA processes, including First Nations/public/agency and stakeholder notification and consultation requirements, technical reports and analyses, and land use planning and environmental protection decisions.

Secondary Plans are part of the Official Plan. The Official Plan is the legal document guiding how all of Kitchener grows and develops. Secondary Plans guide how Official Plan policies are put in place for specific areas of the city – such as Dundee.

Our Official Plan is the road map for all of Kitchener, while Secondary Plans are more detailed for specific areas of the city. We need to provide details for how things like housing, shops, parks, jobs, community design, recreation, and transportation will be built and connected to its surroundings.

The original secondary planning process began in 2022 using the Study Area boundary approved through the Region of Waterloo’s Official Plan in 2015. Since then, an update to the Region’s Official Plan (ROPA 6) was approved in May 2024 which included additional urban lands – a portion of the Southwest Kitchener Policy Area (SKPA). This is now an opportunity to comprehensively plan for long-term development in the whole Dundee community.

• Legislation passed by the provincial government earlier this year added more land for neighbourhoods in cities and towns across the province.
• In Waterloo Region, 2,590 hectares (6,400 acres) of land were added to accommodate growth, including about 260 hectares (642 acres) in Kitchener.

• This policy area identified lands in Southwest area of Kitchener where the final extent of the Protected Countryside, Regional Recharge Area, and associated Countryside Line had yet to be determined. 
• Regional confirmation (Attachment F #11 to report PDL-CPL-22-24) that the SKPA lands were analyzed according to the two tests established through the last ROP and determined not to be Regional Recharge and therefore inside the Countryside Line.

• No, Ontario uses a multi-barrier approach to protecting drinking water safety which includes source protection. Source Water Protection Areas are identified by the Region and mapped in the Regional Official Plan. 
• Source Water Protection Areas are significant in that they contribute water, or are in close proximity, to municipal drinking-water supply wells and surface water intakes that are vulnerable to contamination and or depletion from incompatible land uses.
• Kitchener’s Official Plan contains policies for the protection and conservation of the City’s drinking water resources and the implementation of the Regional Official Plan (esp. the Greenlands Network and Source Water Protection Policies).