Municipal-Wide Land Use Planning

The Municipality has been actively working on municipal-wide land use planning to help shape vibrant, sustainable communities for the future. Launched in 2020, this multi-year project focuses on updating key planning documents, including the Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) and Land Use By-law (LUB), to guide development, support community needs, and meet the province’s mandate for land use planning across Nova Scotia. This project is in response to provincial legislation requiring that all municipalities in Nova Scotia introduce land use planning. A key part of this project is introducing zoning for all areas of the municipality, affecting every property. Zoning helps manage growth, protect important resources, and ensure our communities are thoughtfully planned for the years ahead.

What has happened?

In March 2025, the first draft documents (a draft Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-law) were posted as part of the Planning Advisory Committee agenda on the Engage site and distributed to Council and the public. The documents were intended as drafts, to be reviewed and discussed by both the Planning Advisory Committee, Council, and the public over a series of months through extensive public engagement. At the March 25, 2025 Council meeting, Council passed a motion “that Municipal Council direct staff to prepare a second draft of the Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-law that is less restrictive and closer in line to the mandatory minimum planning requirements outlined in the Municipal Government Act.” You can watch Council's discussion at the meeting here.

Over the spring and summer of 2025, we held dozens of formal and informal events throughout every district. We synthesized what we heard from these events into a What We Heard Report, which you can find here. The findings of the What We Heard Report were presented to Council on October 27, 2025. You can watch this discussion here.

During November and December of 2025, staff presented Council with three Direction Reports over four meetings. You can watch each topic overview and Council's deliberation and directions on YouTube.

November 25 Policy Direction Discussion

December 2 Policy Direction Discussion

December 9 Policy Direction Discussion

December 16 Policy Direction Discussion

Over the past few months, staff have been working to reflect Council’s directions into a second draft of the planning documents.

Next Steps

The Draft 2 documents are now available for public review.

The draft Municipal Planning Strategy can be found here, while the draft Land Use By-law can be found here. You can also check out our Interactive Zoning Map to see which zone your property falls within for Draft #2. The documents were discussed at a Council meeting on March 10, 2026, which you can watch here. There will be additional opportunities to discuss this draft at several open houses at the Municipal Office and in the community. You can view the open house dates and times to the right of this screen - under Open Houses and Events. You can also leave a comment on the Public Input section of this webpage below.