Residential growth in Bright's Grove dominated Sarnia council's discussion about the city's new official plan Monday.
The draft document is hoped to be the primary tool for implementing long-range provincial, county and city-wide land use policies.
Councillor Margaret Bird asked if there was much consideration for where people want to live.
"Rather than telling them, 'we've got new houses in Heritage Park, or we've got new houses here, or new houses there,'" said Bird. "People want to live in set areas. If they cannot get these particular areas along the lake in Bright's Grove, where the land is already ready to go, they're going to move to neighbouring municipalities."
The Planning Partnership's Ron Palmer said growth in the north east part of the city was considered.
"As a planner, I'm bound to implement and be consistent with the provincial policy statement," said Palmer. "We have to go through a process and that process that we followed is, from a professional planner's perspective, justifiable and appropriate."
"At the end of the day, our process resulted in a recommendation that the expansion of Bright's Grove is not appropriate at this time," he added.
When councillor Bird asked how long developers would have to wait to build there, Palmer said demographics change over time and so does the time horizon of the plan.
"While I'm saying today the expansion of the settlement area at Bright's Grove is not justified, that doesn't mean it won't be justified at some point in the future," Palmer said.
Palmer couldn't put a time frame on it.
"The decision to expand the settlement area boundary, at any point in the future, will need to be justified on the basis of an analysis of what is available within the settlement area boundary to accommodate growth."
The nearly 130 page plan is recommending future growth be accommodated through intensification, targeting unbuilt subdivisions and the conversion of employment lands in the city.
City council has directed staff to host a public open house on the draft Monday, March 7 and a public meeting on Monday, March 21.
The draft can be viewed here.