The City of St. John’s is in the home stretch of putting the Envision St. John’s plan and the new heritage by-law into effect. The two documents were before Committee of the Whole yesterday.

The Envision document has been in the works for many years. It was first published in 2014 and has gone through a lengthy review process since.

A commissioner’s report was presented to council yesterday with a number of recommendations. The city agrees with most, but not all of them. It’s noted that council must consider the recommendations, but they are not bound them.

The heritage by-law was first made public last March. Through engagement since then, reaction to it has mostly been negative.

However, the city believes much of that stems from a “misunderstanding” of how the Envision document and the by-law will work together.

Councillor Maggie Burton believes the new by-law “significantly strengthens heritage protection, and not just a little bit, but a lot.”

She says many “big gaps” have been identified by the public that she thinks the by-law addresses, and she hopes even more will be addressed in the upcoming heritage plan.

Both the Envison plan and by-law were unanimously passed at the committee meeting, meaning they will be brought to the next regular meeting of council for a final vote.