About

Doherty Planning and Design opened in 2010 to provide planning expertise to small and medium landowners and to private sector developers. The firm uses an integrated approach, combining technical with policy.

Principal Planner Liam Doherty has worked in the field for over 20 years. A graduate of both McMaster University and Mohawk college, he is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP), a full member of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) and a Certified Planning Technician (CPT). He began his career as an intern in Owen Sound, and has held a progressive series of positions with consulting firms in Toronto, Kitchener, Brampton and Burlington. He opened his own firm in 2010 to help clients with individualised attention their projects.

His focus is to work with clients from the very beginning, whether it is evaluating land for development potential, developing site plans to help solidify their vision, or deciphering their needs to clarify the best path forward for their project.

Doherty Planning and Design provides multiple services over the life of a project. Depending on the need, this includes design drafting, preparing applications, authoring planning reports, negotiating with City staff, hiring and managing sub-consultants, facilitating public consultations, and presenting to committees and councils.

Services
Design
  • Site Plans and Design: Site Plans are highly technical drawings that must meet both planning and building permit requirements. They are prepared in conjunction with surveyors, traffic consultants, engineers, architects and others. Creation of these drawings must account for City design standards, fire safety needs, stormwater and grading requirements, urban design guidelines, vehicular and pedestrian movement and the needs of the client.
  • Draft Plans of Subdivision and Condominium: These are larger technical drawings are the base for applications for approval. They are prepared in conjunction with surveyors, traffic consultants, engineers, architects and others. These drawings, when approved by Council, become legal documents that are filed with the Land Registry.
  • Vision Creation, Opportunities, and Constraints: Often done as part of a feasibility report, these design exercises look at a project site to see the advantages of its location, the issues that need to addressed, and to realize the development might look like.
  • Planning Graphics and Schedules: Proper illustrations are required for all planning applications, public meetings, and committee/council hearings
  • Parking Plans and Concept Plans: These are typically prepared as part of a Draft Plan application.  A Parking Plan shows all of the potential private and parking locations within a development project. A Concept Plan is an illustration of the final built layout of a subdivision or condominium, including such items driveways, sidewalks, mailboxes and street lights..
Planning
  • Planning Feasibility Reports and Due Diligence: A full review of the planning policy and legislative context for a potential development site to examine what is and could be possible. Where necessary this work will be done in collaboration with other experts, such as stormwater engineers or eco-biologist.
  • Planning Justification Reports: Typically required for any development application, the purpose of this is to provide a sound planning rationale for the application, to examine how the project conforms to good planning principles, and how the measure the proposal against municipal and provincial policies.
  • Urban Design Reports: Working in collaboration with the architect, these reports look at the proposed development and how it will fit into its community context.
  • Public Consultations: A requirement of almost every development project, this can range from informal meetings to large town halls, from a few neighbors to large communities and activist interest groups. Public consultation means meeting, listening and understanding their concerns, setting realistic expectations, and facilitating solutions.
Contact

Liam Doherty
Principal Planner
Doherty Planning and Design

830 Harrington Court, Unit 1B,
Burlington, ON, L7N 3N4

905-818-1871
liam@planninganddesign.ca