Land Use and Development

Planning District Program

Two or more adjoining municipalities can join to form a Planning District by regulation under The Planning Act. In so doing, the member municipalities gain significant benefits from working together to coordinate their policies and programs relating to land use, development and the provision of public facilities.

The board of a planning district is responsible for:

• The adoption, administration and enforcement of the development plan for the entire district;
• The administration and enforcement of member municipal by-laws, or a district-wide zoning by-law and any secondary plans; and
• Building by-laws of member municipalities, including those dealing with minimum standards of maintenance and occupancy of buildings.

The board of a planning district also may enter into an agreement with member municipalities, the provincial government or an agency of the government, or any other person to develop and maintain transportation systems, utilities or recreational facilitates for the use of member municipalities, or housing facilities in the district.

Currently there are 44 Planning Districts in Manitoba. For a map of Planning District locations, please click here.

To support the establishment and operation of a Planning District, the department created the Planning District Program, which offers:

• 60% cost-shared financial assistance to new planning districts for the preparation of a development plan and zoning by-laws;
• On-going planning advisory assistance to the planning district and member municipalities to review development proposals, and prepare plan and zoning amendments; and
• Cost-shared financial assistance to update an existing development plan from the Community Planning Assistance Grant program.

For more information on the Planning District program, contact your local Community Planning Services office. For contact information, please click here.