Bayfield Settlement Area Secondary Plan Project

The Municipality of Bluewater is implementing a secondary plan for the Bayfield settlement area. See our news page for upcoming meeting dates and open houses. 

What is the Bayfield Secondary Plan?

The Bluewater Official Plan guides development in all areas of Bluewater. The Secondary Plan provides policies and details for development specific to the Bayfield community. The Secondary Plan seeks to help manage change and to respect the character of Bayfield.

Denise Van Amersfoort, Senior Planner with the County of Huron leads the project.

An informative website, Planned Bayfield was created to share information, encourage participation and to collect feedback from the public. Visit the Planned Bayfield site for the following:

• View Secondary Plan and background documents
• View participants stories
• Maps
• Sign our guestbook

The Secondary Plan public consultation ended in December 2022. The Secondary Plan was adopted by Council as of February 6th, 2023. View the Secondary Plan and background documents on the Planned Bayfield website.

In 2020, Council created a citizen advisory committee made up of 15 community members. The Committee's goal was to assist with the creation of the Secondary Plan. The Committee members worked as ambassadors for the project, advised Council on the development of the Plan and to encourage and support communication, cooperation and coordination among community stakeholders. Several open houses were held to share information about the plan and collect feedback. On adoption of the Plan in February 2023, the Committee fulfilled its mandate and Council closed the committee.

Next steps

Implementation of Secondary Plan will begin with the Formal Planning Act process. This process will be to amend the Bluewater Official Plan and Bluewater Zoning Bylaw.

Formal Planning Act processes will include an additional open house and public meeting. The public can expect this process to start in the immediate future.

Another recommendation was to update the Heritage Conservation District (HCD) Plan for Main Street North and Clan Gregor Square. Council directed staff to look into grant opportunities to support this update and to consider in the 2023 budget.

See our news page for upcoming updates as well as meeting dates and open houses.

If you would like additional information relating to the Secondary Plan, it is available for inspection during regular office hours at the Municipality of Bluewater, Municipal Office, 14 Mill Avenue, Zurich and the Huron County Planning and Development Department, 57 Napier Street, 2nd floor, Goderich (1-888-524-8394 ext. 3).