Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the Proposed Planning Act, City of Toronto Act, 2006, and Municipal Act, 2001 Changes (Schedules 4, 9, and 12 of Bill 185) - the proposed Bill 185, Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024. The Town of Halton Hills’ comments are below and attached is the staff report:

Upper-tier Planning Responsibilities:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: Halton Region, the area Conservation Authorities and Local Municipalities have been collectively preparing transitional provisions by way of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), anticipating this change in the Regional role. As of the date of writing these comments the MOU had been endorsed in principle by the Area Chief Administrative Officers. Staff do anticipate that the Province may be creating transition provisions regarding the shifting roles and responsibilities; should provisions be released, staff will assess any potential impacts at that time.

Staff recommendation: At minimum, Staff recommend that the Province consider that site-specific amendments linked to active development applications that are currently exempt from Regional approval, should continue to be exempt from future Ministry approval. This will ensure the streamlined process is not impacted and may assist in having more homes built faster. In addition, opportunities to exempt municipally initiated Official Plan Amendments that are consistent with the PPS and conform with Provincial Plans where applicable should also be explored. This would require the Ministry to provide comments on initial drafts that can be considered and addressed by the Town prior to Council adoption.

Settlement Area Boundary Expansions:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: Staff have significant concerns with this proposed change. In recent months, we have already received pre-consultation requests for settlement area boundary expansions despite the recent completion of Halton Region’s Municipal Comprehensive Review through ROPA 48 and 49 and the release of Bill 162, Get It Done Act identifying the Town’s potentially expanded urban boundaries to 2051. These new appeal rights could lead to numerous site-specific Official Plan Amendments requesting the inclusion of additional properties inside the Town’s 2051 urban boundary. Should the Town refuse or fail to make a decision within 120 days regarding such applications, subsequent appeals to the OLT are very likely. The proposed changes may very well preclude any degree of stability with respect to the urban boundary and impact our ability to advance other important planning priorities such as the Official Plan review and the development of Secondary Plans for new growth areas. In essence, we are of the view that the changes will lead to ongoing litigation and significant impacts on the Town’s financial and staffing resources.

Staff recommendation: Staff recommend that the need for urban boundary expansions be assessed as part of the municipal Official Plan Review or equivalent process, where the Province will now be the approval authority. This process will typically include a growth forecast and accompanying land needs assessment to ensure that sufficient land has been designated at the local level to accommodate future population and employment growth. Any concerns with the growth forecast and accompanying land budget that underpins an updated Official Plan, should be resolved in a collaborative and transparent manner prior to the Minister’s approval.

Reduced Parking Minimums:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: Staff has significant concerns with the proposed elimination of minimum parking requirements within the Town’s MTSAs. Under such a scenario, the provision of parking will presumably be market based and at the discretion of landowners. The existing multi-modal split in Halton Hills is quite low and without a fully operating public transit system, eliminating minimum parking requirements may result in i) inadequate on-site parking for unit occupants and visitors and/or ii) an increase in street parking.

Staff recommendation: Staff recommend that the Province should first consider implementing these proposed restrictions as a pilot project within PMTSAs or MTSAs that are serviced by frequent transit networks, such as subways or light rail transit. This would ensure that before making these parking restrictions mandatory within MTSAs across the Province, any identified issues with parking demand/ supply and modal split, including commuter traffic can be understood and addressed.

Third Party Appeals:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: Potential impacts with the proposed changes to third party appeals includes the potential dismissal of recent appeals regarding Town Secondary Plans where a hearing has not been scheduled. This includes the one outstanding appeal of the Glen Williams Secondary Plan (OPA 44) and two recent appeals to the Premier Gateway Phase 2B Secondary Plan (OPA 50). It appears at this time that all 3 appeals would be dismissed should Bill 185 receive Royal Assent as proposed.

Staff recommendation: The Town has a long-established process of meaningful community engagement. While the Town does not experience many third-party appeals from the public, meaningful community engagement throughout the planning process leading to a Council decision should continue to be prioritised. On balance, the proposed additional limitations on appeals have merit.

Development Application Fee Refunds:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: The fee refund provisions established through Bill 109 had the potential to result in substantial financial implications to the Town and ultimately led to a more complex application review process in order to best position the Town to be able to make a decision on Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan applications within the statutory time frames. As such, staff welcomes the proposal to eliminate the fee refund provisions from the Planning Act. Notwithstanding, the Town will continue to review all development applications in an expeditious manner as much as possible.

Staff recommendation: Staff recommends that the Town support the proposal to remove the fee refund requirements from the Planning Act. Any applications filed before the deletion date of the fee refund requirements may still be eligible for a fee refund; therefore, the Town encourages the Ministry to eliminate any further fee refunds.

Pre-Consultation Process:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: Pre-consultation is a critical component of the development review process. Pre-consultation provides municipalities an opportunity to offer initial feedback on a preliminary development concept before an applicant files the formal application and is used to establish what materials a municipality will require to properly evaluate the merits of any formal proposal. The Town has a thorough and successful mandatory pre-consultation process that many applicants have identified as being very valuable and instructive.

While the Town expects most applicants to continue to see the benefit of going through a voluntary pre-consultation process, for those that choose to forgo the process it could lead to delays in the development review process and potentially a greater number of OLT hearings.

Staff recommendation: Staff recommends that the Province continue to allow municipalities the authority to make pre-consultation mandatory.

Lapsing Provisions for Plans of Subdivision and Site Plan:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: The intent of the provisions is to presumably provide a tool for municipalities to tackle stalled development proposals or eliminate developers from sitting on approvals (use it or lose it), especially ones that are holding on to unused servicing capacity. While the Town currently imposes lapsing conditions in draft plan of subdivision/condominium and Site Plan approvals, the inclusion of these mandatory provisions to the Planning Act should put the Town in a stronger position should it decide that the lapsing provisions should be invoked. However, enforcement of lapsing conditions for approved developments that may have other considerations such as pre-payment of servicing allocation through the Region’s Allocation Program could be difficult to apply in practice, once monies have been secured by the Region.

Staff recommendation: Staff supports the inclusion of the use it or lose it provisions, but recommend that the Province continue to allow municipalities the ability to extend approvals where the municipality sees appropriate.

Newspaper Notice Requirements and Consequential Housekeeping Changes:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: The Town welcomes the proposed change to allow for notices on the municipal website, especially given the recent loss of the printed local newspaper. The Town has recently (pro-actively) completed an Official Plan Amendment which permits alternative notices for publicly initiated Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment applications.

Staff recommendation: Given staff are fully supportive of the proposed changes, there are no recommendations to offer the Province. Staff will ensure our policies are updated to permit notices on the Town’s website as soon as Bill 185 is approved by the legislature.

Changes to the Development Charges Act:

Potential impacts/areas of concern: The changes proposed through Bill 185 would require updates to the Town’s current processes, however, these are seen as welcome changes.

Staff recommendation: In general, Town staff view the proposed changes to the Development Charges Act as a positive reaction to municipal advocacy that has been on-going for the past number of years, and more recently since Bill 23’s enactment.