About the Regional Official Plan

The Region of Waterloo has spent decade planning for the future of its community with visionary Regional Growth Management Strategies and Regional Official Plans based on six goals:

• enhancing our natural environment
• building vibrant urban places
• providing greater transportation choice
• protecting our countryside
• fostering a strong economy
• ensuring overall coordination & communication

The Regional Official Plan (ROP or OP) is the cornerstone on which the Region of Waterloo’s plans to achieve these goals has been built. Key elements of the OP include a fixed Countryside Line between rural and urban areas and encouraging growth to make better use of existing developed land.

In creation of its OP and related policies, the Region of Waterloo has supported the goals and requirements of the Growth Plan of Places to Grow. The Region of Waterloo has gathered extensive public input as it has pursued these goals.

The 2009 Regional Official Plan, with ambitious goals and visionary new ideas such as Rapid Transit, the Countryside Line, and the Protected Countryside, faced considerable legal challenges that took several years to successfully resolve.

In 2019 the Region of Waterloo began the process of updating the ROP with a deadline of July, 2022 to submit a final plan to the province.