On May 8th, 2024, the…

On May 8th, 2024, the Council of the County of Huron received the following report and directed staff to submit it as comments from the County of Huron on the Revised Draft Provincial Planning Statement.

RECOMMENDATION
That the Council of the County of Huron receive the report from Sandra Weber, Director and Denise Van Amersfoort, Manager of Planning titled Bill 185, Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024 and Revised Draft Provincial Planning Statement (PPS), dated May 8, 2024 be received for information;

And further that, the Council of the County of Huron direct staff to submit pages 1-3 of this report to the ERO Posting as comments from the County of Huron.

The report has been circulated to the local municipalities for information.

Background

The Province introduced Bill 185 “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act” on April 10, 2024. There is no commenting opportunity for Bill 185 but there is an opportunity to provide comments on the revised Provincial Planning Statement until May 12, 2024 (as per Environmental Registry of Ontario posting #019-8462).

This is the tenth significant bill to impact land use planning policy and law since 2021; the changes are proposed to help the Provincial government achieve its goal of 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Comments

This report contains a summary of:
1. Proposed revisions to the Provincial Planning Statement, focusing on those changes most impactful for the County and local municipalities within Huron; and
2. Changes proposed to the Planning Act and Development Charges Act by Bill 185.

Draft Provincial Planning Statement (PPS) 2024

The Province released a draft PPS in Spring 2023 and conducted public consultation in the subsequent months. The County of Huron submitted comments with the main concern being a proposed policy to allow residential non-farm lot creation in Prime Agricultural Areas which has been removed in this updated version. The updated version was released on April 10, 2024.

The draft PPS consolidates the Provincial Policy Statement and A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe into a new Provincial Planning Statement. This has led to a series of new definitions (eg. “large and fast-growing municipalities”) and policies which will not have impact for the County of Huron.

Key Changes by Section, Relevant to Huron County:

Agriculture
- Removed proposed 3 residential non-farm related lot creation policy in Prime Agricultural Areas.
- Directs that two (2) Additional Residential Units are permitted where a residence is a permitted use in Prime Agricultural Areas (Section 4.3.2.5.)
- Amended criteria for surplus dwelling to clarify that detached ARU can’t be severed as second surplus;
- Addition of ‘battery storage’ as an example of a “land-extensive energy facility’ under the “On-farm Diversified Use’ definition.

Response: Many of the County’s concerns have been satisfactorily addressed and we appreciate the approach the Province has taken with consultation, particularly with the farm groups. Huron has already implemented a policy framework for Additional Residential Units in agricultural settings and the policies prohibit the severing of detached Additional Residential Units onto a separate lot through surplus farm dwelling severance criteria.

Mineral Aggregate
- New language for Extraction in Prime Agricultural Area (4.5.4)
o Complete rehabilitation to an agricultural condition is not required if: a) the depth of planned extraction makes restoration of pre-extraction agricultural capability unfeasible; and b) agricultural rehabilitation in remaining areas is maximized.

Response: No concern. Addresses commonly heard criticism that aggregate is not an ‘interim use’ in agricultural settings when extraction is below the water table.

Natural Environment
- Removal of reference to Provincial direction for Natural Hazards (5.2) including hazardous lands adjacent to the shoreline of the Great Lakes – St Lawrence River System, adjacent to river, stream and small inland lake systems which are impacted by flooding hazards and/or erosion hazards; and, hazardous sites.
- Little to no changes identified for Natural Heritage.

Response: No concern.

Water
- Enhanced direction for stormwater management planning (Section 3.6.8)
- New definition ‘sensitive surface water features (4.2.2.)’
o Addresses ‘water withdrawals and addition of pollutants”.

Response: No concern. Huron has strong partnerships with local Conservation Authorities and works cooperatively to achieve shared responsibilities and goals.

Urban
- Amended criteria for Settlement Area Boundary Expansions
o Removed criteria for intensification but includes “demonstrated need”
o New criteria including avoiding impacts on the ‘agricultural system’, need for agricultural impact assessments, and providing for phased progression of urban development.
o Removed all references to ‘comprehensive reviews’ (Section 2.3.2.)
- Population and employment growth forecasts to be based on Ministry of Finance 25-year projections, with modifications as appropriate (Section 2.1.1)
- Planning horizon shifted from 25 years to “at least 20 years but not more than 30 years” (Section 2.1.3.)
- New Housing Section (Section 2.2)
o Requires planning authorities to establish and implement minimum targets for housing that is affordable for low and moderate income households, intensification and redevelopment within built-up areas (Section 2.2.1.a and 2.3.4).
o Permit and facilitate development and redevelopment of underutilized commercial and institutional sites (eg. shopping malls) and mixed use areas.
o ‘Affordable’ with respect to housing is now based on municipality as opposed to regional market area.
- Strategic Growth Areas (Section 2.4)
o New definition and section to promote intensification of defined geographic areas within settlement areas.
- Enhanced direction to protect Employment Areas (i.e. industrial uses) (Section 2.8.2.4)

Response: Huron is well positioned to respond to proposed changes with updated population and housing projections and much of the proposed change was already implemented across the County through the ‘Housing Friendly Review’ (2021-2023).

General
- Enhanced direction for early Indigenous Consultation (Chapter 1, Vision)
- New definition for ‘energy storage systems’ including pumped hydro storage, hydrogen storage, fuels storage, compressed air storage and battery storage.
- New direction for planning authorities to provide opportunities for the development of energy supply including ‘energy storage systems’ (Section 3.8).

Response: Huron supports early and meaningful consultation with Indigenous Nations. The County has one compressed air energy storage facility presently (located in Goderich). In recent months, there have been proposals for battery storage (Huron East) and compressed air energy (Bluewater) within agricultural settings in the County. The County is supportive of energy supply projects while also supportive of the preservation of agricultural lands for agricultural purposes.