Plans

In addition to the official plan and strategic plan, the city is guided by other long-range plans in the key areas.

In addition to the Official Plan and strategic plan, the city is guided by other long-range plans in key areas.

The Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2001 required the City to prepare an annual accessibility plan. The City has adopted an annual accessibility plan since that time.

The Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act (2005) Integrated Standard 191/11 requires preparing a multi-year accessibility plan, which is to be reviewed at least once every five years and involves preparing the annual status report. 

An accessibility staff team was established in 2011, consisting of representatives from every City department as well as Quinte Access and the Quinte West Public Library to oversee the City’s work towards meeting the requirements of the AODA. Together with input from the accessibility advisory committee, this group has developed a work plan for meeting the legislated requirements and helping the City reach its goal of an accessible city. Work will be ongoing as every department strives to meet and exceed the standards set out by the legislation.

Download the full City’s municipal accessibility plan – bylaw 21-092 (PDF)

The active transportation master plan study was conducted in accordance with the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (EA) process (October 2000, as amended in 2007 and 2011), which is an approved process under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. A key outcome is a list of active transportation projects that the City can incorporate into its capital program.

The active transportation master plan process incorporated a comprehensive public consultation program involving the public, municipal staff, technical agencies and other interested stakeholders. The project team comprised representatives from council, public corks, planning and development, health unit, OPP, CFB Trenton, conservation authority, and the local chamber of commerce. Staff are incredibly appreciative of the insight and input provided by the stakeholder group.

The plan was developed around the following objectives:

  • Support a continuous and connected system of active transportation and recreation routes that connect to major communities, community destinations and surrounding areas.
  • Provide opportunities for a range of active transportation and recreation uses, including on and off-road facilities for those who walk, roll and bike and facilities that accommodate varying ages and abilities.
  • Provide active transportation users well-maintained active transportation and recreation infrastructure, including year-round opportunities for active transportation in select locations.
  • Encourage the use of active modes of transportation not only for recreational purposes but also to support public health through travel to school, work and other frequently used destinations.
  • Integrate active transportation and active infrastructure into the day-to-day decision-making when planning, designing and constructing community services and infrastructure.
  • Adopt policies and plans that strongly support and provide priority for active transportation infrastructure, programs and initiatives City-wide; and
  • Identify a network of committed and involved partners, including community members, stakeholders, staff members, and Council representing all communities and socio-economic groups.

Since the 2014 transportation master plan (TMP) development, the City has taken great strides to make Quinte West more enjoyable, fun and accessible to walk, cycle and roll within the city and surrounding areas.

Even with this progress, more can be done to establish Quinte West as a destination within Ontario as a cycling and walking-friendly community. This document will help make the City’s vision a reality by providing City staff, council, and active transportation committee members with the tools, strategies, policies and recommendations to help promote the City as a dynamic community and tourist destination for people of all ages to live, work, play and be active.

Download the full Quinte West active transportation plan final report (PDF).

Download the Quinte West technical appendices (PDF).

This report was created in response to the Community Safety and Policing Act (2019) and existing requirements in the Police Services Act (1990), legislating municipalities to develop a Community Safety and Well-being (CSWB) Plan in consultation with members of the public and community organizations. This plan will be reviewed and revised at regular intervals through community engagement. 

Download the full Quinte West community safety and well-being plan (PDF). 

This plan guides future decision-making on the planning, development and management of parks and open spaces, including trails, throughout the municipality.

Click here to view the parks master plan.

The Ontario legislature passed the Clean Water Act, 2006 to assist communities with protecting their municipal drinking water supplies at the source. Through source protection planning, communities have identified potential risks to local water quality and water supply and have created a plan to reduce or eliminate these risks.

Developing a plan involved watershed residents working with municipalities, conservation authorities, property owners, farmers, industry, health officials, community groups, and other stakeholders. The source protection committee oversaw the process of developing the drinking Water Source Protection Plan.

We all have a role to play in caring for our water. If we want clean water tomorrow, we need to protect our sources of water today. 

Source Protection Committee

The Clean Water Act requires that a Source Protection Committee be established for each Source Protection Region.  Ontario Regulation 288/07 (Source Protection Committees), made under the Clean Water Act, 2006, sets out the requirements for establishing a Source Protection Committee for each Source Protection Region in the Province.  For the Trent Conservation Coalition Source Protection Region, the Source Protection Committee comprises 21 members, plus the Chair.  The committee has overseen the process of gathering information about the watershed, assessing threats and assembling this information into a comprehensive source protection plan.

The committee comprises local stakeholders such as municipalities, agriculture, landowners, industry, business, First Nations, community groups and the general public.

For the first time, communities will be required to create and carry out a plan to protect the sources of their municipal drinking water supplies. The Clean Water Act will:

    • Require local communities to look at the existing and potential threats to their water and set out and implement the actions necessary to reduce or eliminate significant risks. 
    • Empower communities to take action to prevent threats from becoming significant. 
    • Require public participation on every local source protection plan. This means everyone in the community gets a chance to contribute to the planning process. 
    • Require that all plans and actions are based on sound science

Source Protection Plan

The Trent Source Protection Plan was approved by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change on October 23, 2014. The Plan took effect on January 1, 2015.

As a community, the plan looks at the best way to protect our sources of municipal drinking water now and in the future. The Source Protection Plan was developed over several years and is based on technical studies, collaborative policy development, and extensive public consultation.

The Source Protection Plan contains a series of policies developed in consultation with the local community to protect drinking water sources from existing and future threats. These threats have been identified through the technical and scientific work outlined in the Trent Assessment Report. Activities that are significant threats to drinking water require action to minimize or eliminate the risk, as outlined by the source protection plan’s policies. The Source Protection Plan sets out mandatory policies for addressing significant threats to drinking water.

The Source Protection Plan’s policies include various approaches, including education and outreach, the development of risk management plans, prohibitions of future instances of certain high-risk activities, land use planning, and others. The plans’ policies will be implemented by municipalities, planning approval authorities, provincial ministries, and others.

The Source Protection Committee worked closely with municipalities, businesses, landowners, and other stakeholders to decide which combination of tools would work best in local circumstances.

Drinking-Water Threat

A drinking water threat is an activity that can harm the quality or quantity of water used as a source of drinking water. A drinking water threat can be an existing activity or an activity that could exist in the future.

Under the Clean Water Act, 21 drinking water threats were identified, and the Trent Source Protection Committee identified one other. The Trent Assessment Report identifies the types and number of existing drinking water threats in municipal drinking water sources in the Trent Source Protection Area.

Possible drinking water threats in Quinte West:

      1. The establishment, operation or maintenance of a waste disposal site within the meaning of Part V of the Environmental Protection Act.
      2. The establishment, operation or maintenance of a  system that collects, stores, transmits, treats or disposes of sewage.
      3. The application of agricultural source material to land.
      4. The storage of agricultural source material.
      5. The management of agricultural source material.
      6. The application of non-agricultural source material to land.
      7. The handling and storage of non-agricultural source material.
      8. The application of commercial fertilizer to land.
      9. The handling and storage of commercial fertilizer.
      10. The application of pesticides to land.
      11. The handling and storage of pesticides.
      12. The application of road salt.
      13. The handling and storage of road salt.
      14. The storage of snow.
      15. The handling and storage of fuel.
      16. The handling and storage of a dense non-aqueous phase liquid.
      17. The handling and storage of an organic solvent.
      18. The management of runoff that contains chemicals used in the de-icing of aircraft.
      19. An activity takes water from an aquifer or a  surface water body without returning the water brought to the same aquifer or surface water body.
      20. An activity that reduces the recharge of an aquifer.
      21. The use of land as livestock grazing or pasturing land, an outdoor confinement area or a farm-animal yard. O. Reg. 385/08, s. 3.

Implementation and enforcement of the Source Protection Plan

There are many stakeholders involved in developing, implementing and enforcing the Source Protection Plan:

    • The Province/Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks provide legislation, regulations and rules; reviews and approves vital documents, including the Source Protection Plan.
    • The Source Protection Committee directs the development of the Source Protection Plan.
    • Conservation authorities provide support and technical expertise and report on the progress in implementing the Source Protection Plan.
    • Municipalities are involved in technical studies, consultation, and plan development; and implement and enforce the Source Protection Plan.

The City of Quinte West is responsible for all Part IV enforcement of the source protection plan policies.  Part IV of the Clean Water Act provides municipalities with new tools to regulate existing and future activities that are significant drinking water threats due to their potential to pollute drinking water sources. 

As per the Trent Assessment Report, significant drinking water threats are only possible in portions of these areas because these drinking water supplies are identified as more vulnerable:

    • Bayside Intake Protection Zone
    • Trenton Intake Protection Zone
    • Frankford Intake Protection zone
    • Stirling Wellhead Protection Area

The tools include prohibition, risk management plans, and restricted land uses.

Section 57: Prohibition: 

Prohibition is intended to ensure that certain activities are never established in areas with significant drinking water threats. Prohibition is used for activities that cannot be addressed through land-use planning.

Section 58: Risk Management Plans:

Risk management plans are intended to manage existing and future significant drinking water threats through best management practices.

Section 59: Restricted Land Use: 

This tool is used to flag specific land uses in a given area or may be associated with the activities prohibited under section 57 of the Clean Water Act or that require a risk management plan under section 58 of the Clean Water Act.

Trent Source Protection Plan Area

The province has organized the Source Protection Program using watershed boundaries rather than municipal boundaries. The watershed boundary is the most appropriate water management scale since both groundwater and surface water flow across political boundaries.

For source protection planning purposes, the watershed is referred to as a Source Protection Area under the Clean Water Act. The Lower Trent Source Protection Area is part of the Trent watershed. The City of Quinte West is located within the Lower Trent Source Protection Area, and all of the City boundaries lie within the area governed by the Trent Source Protection Plan.

How Does This Affect Me? 

For most residents, the implementation of this plan will simply mean your continued access to safe, reliable water. For others, changes may need to be implemented to comply with new policies that will protect Quinte West’s drinking water for all.

Private and public landowners who handle, store, or apply materials that could threaten municipal drinking water sources in vulnerable areas will be required to follow the Source Protection Plan’s related policies. This will include, for example, best management practices to minimize potential impacts to the City’s municipal drinking water supply. 

Application & Guide

Resources

For more information, please call the Risk Management Official at  613-392-2841, ext. 4482.

The City of Quinte West has initiated a waterfront trail masterplan project. 

The projects’ aim is to deliver a design for a future waterfront trail system within the municipality. This system would increase recreational access to the city’s prime waterfronts, and create active and accessible linkages between recreational facilities and local destinations. The initial phase of this project focuses on the waterfront in and around city hall in Trenton, providing a continuous kinked trail and recreation system from the Cenotaph to a location west of the Trent Port Marina. Future phases envisage the continuation of the trail westwards along the former rail bed to the Murray Canal. The design standards established by the design can be replicated elsewhere in the municipality. 

The initial design concepts are illustrated here. 

Comments and questions can be directed to the Planning and Development Services Department at 613-392-2841 or by emailing planning@quintewest.ca

Zoning bylaws are regulations governing land uses that implement the Official Plan’s policies. Learn more about the zoning bylaw here

Last Updated: 12 months ago

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