Minimum Planning Requirements Changes Summary
7 October 2025
The Minimum Planning Requirements and a general summary for each is provided below.
Click here for a link to the Provincial Legislation. To check which Land Use By-Law applies to your home, please click here. It is important to note that these are draft amendments, are subject to change, and have no legal standing at this time. | ||
Minimum Planning Requirement | Summary and Approach | |
(a) include a statement of policy that expressly recognizes that the Province and, in particular, the Municipality are experiencing a housing shortage crisis and specifies that the most urgent priority in municipal land-use planning, regulation and development approval is to rapidly increase the supply of housing in the Municipality; | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan to increase housing supply. | |
(b) require that priority be given to increasing the supply of safe, sustainable and affordable housing in the Municipality over other interests identified in the municipal planning strategy for the purposes of all processes, approvals and decisions made under the municipal planning strategy; | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan to increase safe, sustainable and affordable housing. Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(c) permit residential uses in all zones, except for all of the following: (i) areas zoned for industrial, military, park, transportation reserve and utility uses, (ii) zones intended to protect the environment, water supply, floodplains or another similar interest; | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan; and adjust the Bedford, Dartmouth, and Sackville Drive Community Plans and Land Use By-laws to permit residential development in remaining commercial zones that do not permit residential development. Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more. | |
(d) require that the Municipality share with the Province the information used by the Municipality to identify, fund, schedule and deploy the infrastructure to develop an adequate supply of housing to support anticipated population growth; | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan to share information with the Province.
Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(e) provide for the adoption of a secondary municipal planning strategy and the implementation of a land-use by-law for the area of the Municipality identified as the suburban area on the map attached as Appendix A, or a substantially similar area, no later than January 31, 2025; | Approach: Include a new chapter in the Regional Plan that sets out the direction to develop a secondary municipal planning strategy and land use by-law for the Suburban Area (Suburban Plan). Provide additional opportunities to allow primarily residential transit-oriented developments to proceed while the Suburban Plan is developed, through a development agreement option. Provide an opportunity to undertake a neighbourhood planning process and phased development for a list of specific Suburban Growth Area Opportunity Sites. Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(f) for developments enabled under the Municipality’s Conservation Design Development policies in the Regional Municipal Planning Strategy that begin construction before April 1, 2028, determine the maximum density of a development based on a lot’s gross area and not on its net area; | Approach: Adjust Regional Plan policy to provide alternative density calculations for Conservation Design Development projects until April 1, 2028.
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(g) not impose maximum height restrictions in a manner that negatively affects the density of residential buildings using mass timber or any other construction method; | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan and adjust land use by-laws to convert height from metres and feet to storeys for medium and high density residential buildings, including when measuring streetwall height.
Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(h) for residential buildings that begin construction before April 1, 2028, provide that no requirement related to unit mix applies; | Approach: Adjust land use by-laws to remove the bedroom count requirements until April 1, 2028.
Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(i) provide that no requirement for on-site parking applies to residential uses within the urban service area; | Approach: Adjust land use by-laws to remove on-site parking for residential uses within the Urban Service Area.
Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(j) for multi-unit residential buildings that begin construction before April 1, 2028, not require that the ground floor consist of more than 20% commercial space; | Approach: Adjust planning documents to reduce the amount of commercial space on the ground floor of a building until April 1, 2028.
Please click here to view a fact sheet and learn more.
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(k) permit temporary housing in non-permanent structures as a use in all zones where it can be safely established to allow employees to live on or near their worksite during a work assignment for a period of time that can be reasonably tied to the duration of the project and that is explicitly set out in the development permit; | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan and adjust land use bylaws to allow temporary housing on or near construction worksites.
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(l) permit manufactured housing, including modified shipping containers converted into housing, in all residential zones. | Approach: Include policy intent in the Regional Plan and adjust land use by-laws to allow converted shipping containers as a dwelling or backyard suite.
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14 (1) Any statement of policy included in a municipal planning strategy in accordance with clause 13(c) on the minimum setback required between a residential dwelling and a wind turbine, that is part of, or located within, an energy-generating facility with a production rating of 2 MW or greater, must not require a minimum setback larger than the greater of the following: (a) 4 times the wind turbine height; (b) the distance required to ensure that (i) sound levels from the wind turbine do not exceed 40 dBA at the exterior of a residential dwelling, and (ii) a residential dwelling receives less than 30 minutes per day or 30 hours per year of shadow flicker | Applicable LUBS are being amended. | |
