Protecting Community Input in the Planning Process - by Councillor Mark Grimes, seconded by Councillor Anthony Perruzza

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The decision

2022-05-11 · Toronto City Council · adopted

As filed

City Council on May 11 and 12, 2022, adopted the following: 1. City Council request the Province of Ontario to amend the Planning Act or Ontario Land Tribunal Act to require any applicant who appeals a planning application for lack of decision to hold a community consultation meeting with City Planning and the local City Councillor, at the applicant's expense prior to the first Case Management Conference at the Ontario

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Land Tribunal, to ensure that members of the public are aware of the details of the development in order to consider whether they wish to participate in the Ontario Land Tribunal proceedings.

On the agenda

As the city filed it

Residents deserve to have a say in how our communities change. There is an established planning process that involves the review of development applications by City staff, which is followed by a community consultation meeting, before a final report is presented to City Council. Recent changes to the Ontario Planning Act have placed more pressure on the City of Toronto to review development applications faster. Recently, there have been situations where some developers have appealed their applications to the Ontario Land Tribunal before a community meeting has been held.

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Once a development application has been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal, there is no longer a legislated requirement for a community meeting. Resident input provides a crucial perspective on the impacts that these developments will have on the established local community. By immediately appealing their application at the first chance, developers are taking away the opportunity for residents to have their concerns about height, density, traffic, parking, affordable housing, infrastructure, shadowing, parks, etc., communicated directly to the developer through the community meeting. These actions signal that some developers are not interested in listening to resident feedback and are treating our community as nothing more than red tape. By circumventing the community meeting, these developers are cutting our community out of the development process. This Motion seeks to protect community input in the planning process by continuing to require a community meeting when a development application has been appealed for non-decision. This will help keep our communities informed of the details of a development application and would give them the information they need to decide if they want to participate in the appeal process.

Staff recommended

Councillor Mark Grimes, seconded by Councillor Anthony Perruzza, recommends that: 1. City Council request the Province of Ontario to amend the Planning Act or Ontario Land Tribunal Act to require any applicant who appeals a planning application for lack of decision to hold a community consultation meeting with City Planning and the local City Councillor, at the applicant's expense prior to the first Case Management Conference

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at the Ontario Land Tribunal, to ensure that members of the public are aware of the details of the development in order to consider whether they wish to participate in the Ontario Land Tribunal proceedings.

On the record

The item as the City filed it

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