Planning, Development and Urban Design maintains and administers the City's land use planning policies, by-laws and processes including the Official Plan, the Zoning By-law, the Central Area Community Improvement Plan, the Central Area Master Plan, and the Downtown Patio Program. The Division consists of Policy Planning, Development Planning, Urban Design, Development Engineering, and Heritage Preservation business units.

The Division processes all municipal land use and related development engineering approvals for subdivision plans, site plans, zoning and Official Plan amendments, and administers the work of the Committee of Adjustment. Staff research and monitor trends in community planning, built and cultural heritage, legislation and development opportunities, and administer the development of City industrial parks.

The Division is also responsible for administering the Heritage Property Tax Relief Program, heritage property designations under the Heritage Act, archaeological investigations, Doors Open events and to preserve built heritage and support the Peterborough Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (PACAC).

The net decrease in the 2025 budget is a result of increased revenue from planning application fees offsetting increased expenses for approved salary and benefits costs, and the annualization of a new staff position approved with the 2024 budget.

The 2025 budget includes a new staff position, Intermediate Planner, Urban Design which is fully funded by planning application fees and has no tax requirement. This position will help manage site plan approval and development application review workload and create additional capacity for Urban Design staff to manage major projects.

Interactive Budget

Explore the City's budget using the interactive OpenBook feature, including expenses by department and division as well as a breakdown of what a typical residential property taxpayer pays per $100,000 of assessment.

The full budget information is available in the Draft 2025 Budget book.

The OpenBook budget tool enhances the transparency of the City's Budget by allowing us to share financial information visually in accessible and easy to understand formats. View our budget data using charts, tables, and graphs. We hope you find this helpful.

Through our OpenBook reports, you can start at the organizational level then click on a department to go down to the division/section/service level as you explore the financial information for the City. Flip between charts, tables and graphs to display the data in a way that visualizes the information based on your preference.

In OpenBook tables, all column headers labeled as "Current Year" refer to 2025; "Previous Year" refers to 2024.

Please note: The 2025 Budget is the first year that the City has used this budget tool to enhance how it shares information with residents. We're learning how to use the new platform and will be adding features and reports as we explore the tool's capabilities.

OpenBook budget tool