The Township of Wellesley…

The Township of Wellesley has a number of comments/concerns outlined in the attached staff report. These comments are summarized below:
- Changes to the Environmental Assessment Act are generally supported.
- LPAT - The emphasis on municipal decisions should be strengthened, returning to a "de novo" hearing lessens the municipalities control over local land use planning matters.
- the use of inclusionary zoning provisions should not be limited by geography.
- shortening the timelines for decisions could have the opposite effect that it is trying to achieve, leading to more appeals and additional backlogs of the LPAT system.
- the ground for appeal to the LPAT should remain consistency and conformity to the Growth Plan.
- Changes to Section 37 are going to significantly impact many smaller municipalities. If the intent is to get away from the "lets make a deal" approach of some municipalities. then the rules should be tightened so that municipalities are required to have a set of transparent and adopted bonusing provisions that removes this from the political sphere. For example, the city of Kitchener has a very good, transparent system in effect.