FAQs

An Official Plan outlines the goals, objectives and policies to manage and direct growth in a municipality. The Official Plan tells how land will be used in the City of Markham, managing Markham's:

• social;
• economic; 
• cultural and; 
• natural environment priorities. 

The Official Plan also provides a framework for other policies and regulations, such as zoning by-laws. 

The Planning Act prescribes provincial and regional conformity requirements for municipal official plans, and requires such documents to be reviewed and updated not less frequently than every 10 years to ensure these requirements are achieved. The last City of Markham Official Plan was approved in 2014. An update is necessary to adhere and conform to legislative changes, managing growth, providing overarching direction to existing/ongoing secondary and community plans, and conforming to Provincial policy direction. 

The review will include the following but not limited to tasks: 

• Review of the Provincial Planning Statement 
• Growth and economic trends analysis
• Evaluation of policies in the existing Official Plan 
• Updating maps