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June 3, 2022Strong Downtown and Livable Neighbourhoods
June 3, 2022
The City of Whitehorse formally adopted Whitehorse 2040 as the City’s new Official Community Plan on March 27, 2023.
The adoption follows the document’s mandatory ministerial review and approval by the Yukon’s Minister of Community Services and is the result of months of engagement with the community.
This OCP will guide the City’s growth well into the future and includes a number of changes to meet the changing needs of the community.
This work would not have been possible without the important feedback from residents, businesses, stakeholders, and partners.
Emerging Directions
The objective of this document is to seek community feedback on the major policy moves being considered for the next OCP. Based on community feedback on this Emerging Directions document, the City will begin drafting the next OCP which will be put for further public input and consideration by City Council in 2022.
View the Emerging Directions for the Official Community Plan
View the Phase 3 What We Heard report
What are the Emerging Directions?
The emerging directions were shaped by the community input we heard through Phase 1 and Phase 2 engagement as well as City-wide objectives from the Sustainability Plan, Transportation Demand Management Plan, Commercial and Industrial Lands Study and other City plans and strategies.
The Emerging Directions are a precursor to the draft OCP and include the following seven key themes:
- Toward Reconciliation;
- Climate Action;
- Conservation of Natural Areas;
- Strong Downtown and Liveable Neighbourhoods;
- Toward a Sustainable Mode Share;
- Targeting the Right Supply of Housing; and
- Intensifying Employment Areas.
Accommodating future residential demand in Whitehorse
With help from the Yukon Bureau of Statistics, this background report is the first step in understanding how many new homes will be needed in Whitehorse based on population projections to 2040.
This paper studies the options for meeting this expected housing demand over the next 20 years.
View the background report on Accommodating Future Residential Demand in Whitehorse.
The Phase 2 What We Heard report was released in October 2019.
Notably, as part of Phase 2 we received more than 700 responses to our 21-question workbook. At an average of 17 minutes per response, this represents more than 8 full days that Whitehorse residents devoted to supplying us with key input to help shape the updated OCP! Big thanks to everyone who’s been involved so far.
The Phase 1 Summary and What We Heard report was released in April 2019.
An online survey was launched in November 2018 and ran until the end of January 2019. The survey was promoted through our website, social media, OCP related ads, and through pop‐up engagement events. In total, we received 480 survey responses. Additionally, there were approximately 35 stakeholder meetings with nearly 100 people attending in total. Thank you to everyone who participated!
An OCP is a community-led plan that reflects the ideas, aspirations, priorities, and expertise of Whitehorse residents. Your involvement is key to setting the direction on how you live, work, and play in your city. Whitehorse 2040 will have four phases.
Phase 2, called “Explore New Concepts”, is about taking the big ideas collected from the public in Phase 1, and testing and considering them in more detail. Ideas are generally limited to those that don’t already have recent planning work completed. In Phase 3, we will combine these with other planning work that’s already been previously completed to create a draft plan.
The Municipal Act gives municipalities the power to create an OCP and also specifies they must be reviewed within a regular period of time. Once adopted by Council, work produced by the City must align with the OCP, including the Zoning Bylaw, and other regulatory and policy documents. An OCP is used by the City to make decisions on land-use planning, housing, growth, conservation, recreation, transportation, relationships with other governments, and more!
City staff have been working towards a new OCP for several years now by arranging to have numerous supporting documents completed in time to be integrated into the OCP. The work that has gone into plans, such as the Sustainability Plan, Parks and Recreation Master Plan, Downtown Plan, Marwell Plan, Transit Master Plan, and Bicycle Network Plan will not be duplicated, but rather guide the OCP. Click here to view the list of plans.
In addition, the following studies were completed. These are not formally adopted by Council, but look in depth at a specific subject area, and will inform OCP policies and land use planning decisions:
Download the new OCP, Whitehorse 2040.
Download the OCP Backgrounder for a handy reference guide to what an OCP is and what’s in it.
The Phase 2 What We Heard report was released in October 2019. This report summarizes all of our extensive engagement events held between April and September 2019. 850 people helped us out with feedback in Phase 2!
The Phase 1 Report was released in April 2019. This report contains a summary of all background reports that will inform the OCP, Whitehorse statistics, and a summary of what we heard in Phase 1. We had 755 responses in Phase 1. Thank you!
Download the 2010 OCP, which was in effect until the new plan was adopted.
Our housing demand infographic describes some of the factors that will influence housing demand into the future.
Staff have produced two videos to help spread info about the OCP review.
