Jeff Braun, Senior Development Officer with the Neepawa and Area Planning District (NAPD), joins us to talk about the work of a planning district, from the overarching development plan right down to the neighbour’s new porch.

Rrain Prior – Local journalism Initiative

The Planning District is regulated primarily by the provincial Planning Act, which is what gives them the authority to create the bylaws that set out the area’s land use policies. The office is responsible for building inspections, permits (such as building, plumbing, lot grading), planning requirements (including conditional uses, variations, rezoning, subdivisions, development plan amendments), and zoning memorandums. Braun explains what most of these are and what they mean both from a town planning perspective and also for the average landowner or homeowner.

If you’ve never renovated a home or divided up a piece of property you may never have had occasion to deal with them, but the work of the planning district is fundamental to the structure of a town.

The NAPD is composed of the Town of Neepawa and the municipalities of Rosedale and Glenella-Lansdowne, and between the three they create a broad guideline, known as the Development Plan, which is an overview of what the three partners want to see the area grow towards. Each of the partners then gets more granular with those broad strokes within their own municipality, identifying areas that are, for instance, light industrial or commercial or single family dwellings.

Working with the system can feel a little overwhelming, admits Braun, but the planning office is there to help. While people doing large-scale projects probably already know the ins and outs of working with Planning, someone just building an addition on their home might not. He advises that anyone considering doing any work just give them a call and they’ll help them through the process.