Fall 2024 Update

With the end of 2024 near it’s a great time to provide an update on the progress of the City’s new Official Plan and Integrated Mobility Plan. There’s been a lot that’s happened since June and a lot yet to happen.

Summer Engagement Highlights

We launched ‘YG220K’ in June with the application process for the Community Advisory Group and making appearances at several key community events. Between June and September, we connected with the Kingston community at six pop-up events, including the Princess Street Promenade, the Cataraqui Centre, Kingston PRIDE and the Memorial Centre Farmer’s Market, where we had the chance to see this year’s zucchini races and if you haven’t seen that before, you should!

The YG220K booth at Kingston Pride in June.

We also hosted a back-to-school colouring contest, providing activity sheets to local schools. The sheets sparked discussions around the dinner table, and students who completed them had a chance to win a prize pack, including Grand Theatre tickets.

Community Advisory Group Launches

After receiving more than 200 applications over the summer, the Community Advisory Group Members were selected through an adapted civic lottery process. In September the Community Advisory Group held their first meeting where participants were introduced to the project and Kingston’s context. This included learning about the ways Kingston is projected to grow and the history of land use and transportation planning in Kingston. The session also included an interactive group activity where participants imagined what Kingston might look like in 25 years, helping to shape the policy needed to get there.

Tim Park, Director of Planning Services, speaks to the CAG.

Integrated Mobility Plan Gets Moving

In late October the Notice of Commencement was published for the Integrated Mobility Plan project. This is part of the Environmental Assessment process and formally begins the project. In early November, we facilitated small group workshops where participants created journey maps to understand their personal lived experiences travelling around Kingston.

The City also launched Kingston Moves, our household travel survey. While not directly part of this project, the data from that survey will be used to help inform the work on the Integrated Mobility Plan. The survey is being conducted by an external research firm (R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd.) who has mailed out unique survey codes to randomized addresses in Kingston. If you happened to receive one, please take the time to fill it out – it goes a long way in helping the City plan for the future!

What’s Happening Now and What’s Next?

Writing of the draft Official Plan has started. This is an effort to begin foundation building based on feedback from the City’s strategic plan and informed by the visioning work over the summer. This is still in the very early stages and a lot of work is still to come.

Workshops were also held with Indigenous community members after the YG220K team reached out through community contacts. These online workshops are a space to hear Indigenous insight about the Official Plan and Integrated Mobility Plan.

Coming Soon: Survey Time!

It’s almost SURVEY TIME! That’s right, in January 2025 we will be releasing a survey that asks for some specific feedback on topics important to the development of both the Official Plan and the Integrated Mobility Plan. We’ll send out another update when that survey is live. So please keep your eyes peeled for that, we’re very excited to start this part of the process.

Thank you again for your interest and your time, this update was not brief but there’s a lot of ground to cover. If you have questions please reach out to newofficialplan@cityofkingston.ca and mobilityplan@cityofkingston.ca.

We’ll be in touch soon,

YG220K Project Team