Spring/Summer 2026 Update

For more background on this please read our news release.

Revised Draft Natural Heritage System Mapping

The Summer 2025 consultation resulted in modifications to the natural heritage system mapping, including feature composition and boundaries. The link above allows residents to easily compare the initial and revised drafts. Mapping modifications include:

  • Significant Woodlands: Manual refinements were applied to improve mapping accuracy, especially related to hedgerows and rural residential subdivisions;
  • Potential Woodland Enhancement Areas: This is an evolution of the former “Other Treed Areas” component in the initial draft mapping;
  • Locally Important Wetlands: The draft Natural Heritage Study Report has included new criteria to identify and map this feature, formerly referred to as Locally Significant Wetlands;
  • Other Wetlands: Unevaluated wetlands are now contained within “Other Wetlands”;
  • Minor site-specific refinements to reflect current aerial imagery or previously confirmed boundaries.

Natural heritage system mapping has been provided for the Urban Boundary Expansion Applications, including the original draft mapping from Summer 2025 and the current revised draft mapping; both versions are available for comparison. The current revised draft mapping reflects the findings of the City’s examination of the applicant’s Environmental Impact Studies, drone imagery, provincial mapping and site visits by the City’s Ecologist. All modifications were undertaken in accordance with the criteria outlined in the Technical Report and draft Natural Heritage Study Report. Additional information regarding the City’s technical review for each urban Boundary Expansion Application is available online through DASH.

Draft Natural Heritage Study Report

The draft Natural Heritage Study Report provides considerations for the policy and mapping framework to inform the City’s natural heritage system within the new Official Plan. The report is intended to provide the City with a variety of tools and options to select from to establish the municipal approach to protecting the natural heritage system, which will need to balance the other aspects of community planning outlined in the Provincial Planning Statement 2024 and the broader growth strategy of the City’s new Official Plan.

Appendix 1: Technical Report

The Technical Report outlines the mapped and unmapped components of the natural heritage system and outlines the criteria used to identify each feature and the methodology applied to determine the mapped components. The Summer 2025 consultation resulted in minor text modifications to the report, as outlined in the Summary of Revisions. Appendices to the Technical Report are available upon request.

Appendix 2: Summary of Public Consultation and Open House #1

This document summarizes and responds to the comments received on the draft Technical Report, draft Natural Heritage System mapping, and requested policy consideration topics for the draft Natural Heritage Study Report. In many situations, the summarized comments are a consolidation of several similar comments and therefore reflect the intent, if not the exact wording, of the feedback.

Virtual Open House

The City of Kingston and North-South Environmental hosted a virtual Open House to present the draft Natural Heritage Study Report and the revised draft Natural Heritage System Mapping.

The recording of the open house is available to view below. The slides are available as a PDF file.


Feedback

Feedback related to the Natural Heritage Study can be emailed to Niall Oddie, Senior Planner, noddie@cityofkingston.ca .

Feedback on mapping can also be provided through a comment form on the mapping portal.

Feedback related to the Second Draft of the Official Plan should be provided to newofficialplan@cityofkingston.ca or through the YG220K Get Involved Kingston webpage.

Next Steps

Feedback on the draft Natural Heritage Study Report will be taken into consideration as the document is finalized later this Spring 2026. Responses to public feedback received through this round of consultation will be released at the same time as the final Natural Heritage Study.