Minister Lohr’s Designation of HRM as an Interim Planning Area.

There has been a lot of confusion around Minister Lohr’s implementation of an Interim Planning Area (IPA) for all HRM.  This was put in place, so that the Minimum Planning Requirements (MPRs) could be enabled.  These MPRs were supposed to have been put in place for December 2024.  However, Council is now on track to approve them by December 2025.  Once approved by Council and signed off by the Province, the IPA will be removed. The MPRs were part of the Regional Plan amendments which were approved by Council in June and rejected by the Province.

To be clear, this is not a Special Planning Area (SPA).  An SPA is a completely different process, with far different outcomes.

Stephen