There are a lot of important…

There are a lot of important policies in place by the Provincial Policy Statements that are implemented into Official Plans as per the One Window approach from the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. These policies help to protect the natural environment, ensure available resources for any future needs or demands, and provide human protection and safety.

However, the intent of these policies may not be designed to prevent development. The way these policies are written create almost no leeway to allow for small-scale residential development and either completely restrict development without providing alternative solutions or require studies, reports or analysis that may be difficult to obtain in rural areas (due to lack of qualified professionals working in the area); may be costly to a property owner in a rural area (due to lack of qualified professionals working in the area and due to the significant number of lower income households); and delays the building of homes for employees and families making the area undesirable to work in. A constant complaint in the area is that it is so difficult to build in rural areas.

For example, a single detached dwelling on a 100 acre parcel of land may contain an Extractive Reserve (for future extraction of gravel, sand or bedrock resources). The policies in the Official Plan as implemented by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing prohibit development within 300 metres or 500 metres of this Extractive Reserve. Further studies, reports or analysis is needed before a property owner may be able to build a single detached dwelling or an additional residential dwelling unit on a 100 acre parcel of land. Although it is important to plan for future extraction, there is no policy consideration or guidance from the Ontario Ministry on developing within 300 metres or 500 metres to grant a property owner the opportunity to develop a home within this area.

Consideration should be made to provide exceptions to policies related to development near or in Deer Yard Habitats, Abandoned Mines, Extractive Reserves, and active pit or quarry operations that are not too onerous on adjacent properties. Most of the rural municipalities in Eastern Ontario near Algonquin Park are filled with these areas which really restricts development and makes it difficult for employers to house employees and for people to build communities here.

Providing exceptions to policies related to development near or in Deer Yard Habitats, Abandoned Mines, Extractive Reserves, and active pit or quarry operations could be through Guidance Documents from the Ontario Ministries on when these policies apply and do not apply. For instance, a single detached dwelling located on a lot with Extractive Reserve should not be built on the Extractive Reserve and should be at least 300 metres or 500 metres (whichever is applicable) unless due to existing lot constaints (such as lot size, lot depth, or topography) it is not possible to do so. In the case of existing lot constraints, the distance between the Extractive Reserve may be reduced with setbacks from property lot lines reduced to further the distance from the Extractive Reserve.

The restriction on development comes from the Province, not the municipalities that have to implement these policies from the Province.

Policies involving Subdivision Plans must also be looked at. Small rural areas are tightly-knit and it makes it difficult for Council to pass a Deeming Bylaw to disband an old Plan of Subdivision as the owner of the Plan of Subdivision has a lot of leverage in small rural areas. "If you build they will come" has been shown to be not true in many case studies, however, it is the inverse situation in some rural areas. There is a demand for more housing as more people are trying to move to rural areas but there is not enough housing available so people do not come. Policies or Guidance from the Province could support a Vacant Land Tax for undeveloped Plans of Subdivision to try and force developers to develop their homes, especially since existing policies will not permit any new Plans of Subdivisions in a rural area due to an undeveloped Plan of Subdivision despite lists of renters and homebuyers looking to move here. This may provide confidence to rural Councils to address the undeveloped Plans of Subdivisions that have been left undeveloped for decades for financial speculative purposes.

Finally, it is difficult to get assistance from Provincial Ministries on restrictive policies and data to help property owners with their development. The policies come from the Provincial Ministries and the Municipalities are left to try and handle development with little or no assistance from the Provincial Ministries. To assist this further, the Provincial detailed data (not just the basic data from Open Data) should be easily accessed by the Municipalities; there should be Guidance Documents on implementing policies from the Ministries on when these policies apply and do not apply; and the Provincial Ministries should ensure their employees are responding to requests from Municipalities for comments from the Provincial Ministries on development proposals (as per the role of the Ministries and the policies in Official Plans).