Administration Seeks Approval in Principle of the Growth Plan to Half a Million

Civic Administration will present the final Growth Plan to Half a Million (Growth Plan) report to the Governance and Priorities Committee on Monday, April 18, 2016, and request that the report be forwarded to City Council for approval, in principle, of the long-term benefits and key directions outlined in the plan.

“The Growth Plan was developed over the last two and a half years through a five-phase public engagement process called ‘Growing Forward! Shaping Saskatoon’,” says Alan Wallace, Director of Planning and Development.  “Residents were involved in discussions on everything from current and future challenges of growth to potential long-term changes for the city.”

Resident feedback has been used alongside technical work to prepare the final Growth Plan, which outlines eight key directions to guide transportation, transit, and land use planning to accommodate a population of half a million people.

The key directions included in the Growth Plan are:

1. focus growth and enable redevelopment along Saskatoon’s major corridors, with the goal of creating complete communities along these corridors;
2. support the development of strategic infill sites consisting of the Downtown, North Downtown, and the University of Saskatchewan’s endowment lands to achieve infill targets;
3. provide a robust transportation network that includes opportunities for all modes of transportation;
4. create a range of enhanced transit services over time to meet a variety of needs;
5. implement rapid transit facilities and services along the city’s major corridors as demand grows to support projected ridership;
6. use a range of operational methods to enhance the speed and reliability of transit services, including traffic management interventions where necessary;
7. acknowledge the need for future additional river crossing capacity within Circle Drive to serve anticipated travel demand and consider this alongside methods to increase the “people-carrying capacity” of all bridges; and
8. recognize that the supporting initiatives of the Financing Growth Strategy, the Employment Areas Study, and the Active Transportation Plan are also important components to achieving this vision.

“Without the Growth Plan, economic and community impacts of continuing the current growth patterns are expected to include increased traffic congestion, reduced levels of transit service, longer commutes, and higher infrastructure costs,” said Wallace.

If the Growth Plan is approved in principle, a ten-year action plan will be created to guide the implementation of the Growth Plan, which will be brought to City Council for approval in early 2017.

Comments and requests to speak at the Governance and Priorities Committee may be submitted, in advance, via the City’s website at www.saskatoon.ca/writetocouncil.

For more information on the Growth Plan, including the final technical and summary reports, please visit the project website at www.growingfwd.ca.