A key component of Town of…

A key component of Town of Oakville Council’s Strategic Plan 2023-2026, under the Environmental Sustainability pillar, is the development of green development standards. Lot-level interventions such as low-impact development, native plantings, and connections to active transportation are proven tools for reducing natural hazard risks, enhancing urban biodiversity, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Oakville supports standards that may improve predictability; however, standardised lot-level rules that limit the ability of the Town to require low impact development will undermine climate resiliency, stormwater management, biodiversity, and tree canopy objectives, among others. Town staff are very concerned by the potential for the restriction of lot-level sustainability measures. Without mandatory standards, there is little incentive for private development to implement such measures, despite the environmental and community benefits. The total removal of such measures could increase flood risks, lower urban biodiversity and resiliency, and increase greenhouse gas emissions by prioritizing personal vehicles. The Town is currently in the process of developing Sustainable Development Guidelines to support climate change resiliency through responsive site and community design.

The Town of Oakville, like many municipalities, is being impacted by climate change including extreme rainfall events. Without the lot-level interventions designed to help municipalities adapt to and mitigate the impacts of a changing climate, flood risks and greenhouse gas emissions will increase, which in turn will increase long-term expenses, extreme heat, and flooding while lowering air quality, access to active transportation, and green space, thus negatively impacting public health.

Removing municipal authority to require lot-level sustainability measures would undermine climate/urban-forest objectives and increase long-term infrastructure and climate costs. Municipalities need a clear role and funding/incentives to maintain higher-performing standards where appropriate.

If inconsistency between municipalities is an issue, the Province should develop a best practice framework including terminology and scientifically-based ecological and engineering standards that will allow municipalities to implement consistent requirements for lot development that are easy to understand and access by developers.

The Town recommends that any provincial lot-level standards:
1) integrate best-practice stormwater and tree-protection requirements,
2) allow municipalities to adopt more stringent measures to meet climate/greenhouse gas commitments, and
3) include incentives (not only prescriptions) for low-impact development standards, and higher green-space ratios.

If the Province proceeds with standardized lot rules, incentives should be provided by way of transitional funding (such as through Development Charge credits) and model by-laws should be provided to assist municipal implementation.