Future land use planning priorities for the Town of Hawkesbury were the subject of a public meeting held before the Regular Meeting of Hawkesbury Council on April 13.
The statutory public meeting was held to discuss the new draft Official Plan for the town and was presented by Lisa Dalla Rosa and Jaime Posen from FOTENN, the planning company contracted by the town for the project.
The purpose of an Official Plan is to update land use planning to conform with provincial planning policies and legislation, along with the Official Plan of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR). The draft Official Plan will be presented to council for adoption on May 11. It will then be forwarded to the UCPR for approval.
The consultation period for the new Official Plan began in August 2025 and ended in April 2026. Common themes which emerged included housing, taxation, industrial land, Hydro Hawkesbury, parks and recreation, downtown revitalization, and regional governance.
Dalla Rosa said 180 responses were received from the public and other agencies and organizations during the consultation process.
The creation of the new Official Plan resulted from the town’s strategic plan exercise in 2025. The basic intent of the plan is to make Hawkesbury a hub for growth in Eastern Ontario. Six specific areas of focus are identified in the draft plan. They are livable neighbourhoods, climate change, natural heritage/waterfront and recreation, housing, infrastructure, and employment.
Dalla Rosa said the new plan also includes improved focus on density to maximize housing construction, parkland dedication, and parking requirements, and a new gateway mixed policy area to comply with the Provincial Policy Statement.
Resident Catherine Wilson said she is concerned about developers paying cash to the town instead of providing parkland to accompany their developments.
“In my experience, the cash is going to be the one that gets given, not the parkland,” she said.
The Planning Act allows for a developer to pay a municipality five per cent of the development’s value in cash-in-lieu of parkland, but the option also exists for council to enact a bylaw according to other rates in a schedule provided within the Act.
A resident of Pattee Road, which is not within Hawkesbury town, limits asked if there are plans for the development of Hamilton Island in the Ottawa River.
“It’s been discussed by many councils in the past. There are a lot of challenges as you know, when it comes to the developing of Hamilton Island,” Mayor Robert Lefebvre responded.
The undeveloped island is currently designated as parks and open space.
Lefebvre noted that the parks and recreation master plan process is ongoing and will be presented soon after a consultation process, and he believes it includes Hamilton Island.
Councillor Tony Tsourounakis asked if council has the choice to refuse cash-in-lieu for parkland and want greenspace instead.
Dalla Rosa said recent changes to the Planning Act allow councils to say they want the parkland, but developers must be able to provide it within the subject development.
Councillor Jeanne Charlebois said she objects to the designated flood plain along the waterfront because Hawkesbury was not affected by previous major floods, even if they did more seriously affect municipalities upstream.
“Is there anything we can do to change this designation?” she asked.
Lefebvre said a UCPR study resulted in the area being designated as a floodplain and lower-tier municipalities must conform to UCPR official plan.
Dalla Rosa said adjustments are possible, but there is no guarantee obtaining them would be successful.
Former Mayor René Berthiaume, who now lives in Champlain Township, said he requested a revision to the flood plain designation during his 2010 to 2014 term. He said the area around the sewage treatment plant was removed from the floodplain area, but the former Christ-Roi school property was left in. Berthiaume believes the floodplain has not been properly identified for Hawkesbury and the UCPR should be requested to take another look.
“I think it’s worth looking into and talking to the counties,” Lefebvre said.
During the regular meeting, council adopted a resolution to directing administrative staff to explore options about revising the floodplain designation and report back to council. However, that report will not be associated with the final presentation of the draft Official Plan to council on May 11.
