Re: ERO # 019-8369 Proposed …

Re: ERO # 019-8369 Proposed “Bill 185, Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024”

Please accept this as Environmental Defence’s Environment Registry comment and recommended amendments to Bill 185, described as the “Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024”. Environmental Defence will also be making submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs in relation to this Bill.

Environmental a leading national environmental organization that works at the federal, provincial and municipal levels to safeguard our freshwater, create livable communities,tackle climate change and build a clean economy. In Ontario, Environmental Defence is the environmental NGO with expertise focused on land use and land development issues.

These comments and recommendations are made further to our submissions regarding ERO019-6813, which concerned the Repeal of Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Provincial Policy Statement and introduction of a New “Provincial Planning Statements”.

While Environmental Defence strongly supports amendments in Bill 185 which remove parking requirements around existing or planned major transit areas, we must warn the government that the proposal to let sprawl developers appeal the refusal of settlement boundary expansion requests, while prohibiting Ontario Land Tribunal oversight of decisions to say “yes” to settlement boundary expansion are a recipe for the senseless destruction of large swathes of farmland and natural heritage that should and could be permanently protected, and for fewer, more expensive homes, but also for rampant corruption. The adverse consequences of these provisions, for the environment, for housing supply and for the integrity of public decision-making, would far outweigh the benefits (which are very real) of eliminating parking minimums in MTSAs.

In order to mitigate these problems, Committee must remove make the following amendments, at minimum:

Remove sections 4(4) and 5(6) of Schedule 12, which would allow for developer appeals of Official Plan and Zoning By-Law decisions not to expand the boundary of an area of Settlement.

If sections 3(1), 3(3) and 5(7) of Schedule 12 are retained in any form, amend them to apply only to decisions which directly or indirectly increase the number of units permitted within the existing built up area of relevant municipality.

Remove section 1(1) which would strip Halton Region, Peel Region and York Region of their control over land use planning in those regions.

These amendments are vital, because under the proposed Provincial Policy Statement (which should itself not be adopted) land speculators could demand at any time that farmland, wetlands and wildlife habitat be earmarked for sprawl development, with the new law letting them appeal any refusal. The effect of removing third party appeals of these decisions would be to remove any expert Ontario Land Tribunal oversight of multi-billion dollar decisions by municipal council decisions to say “yes”.

These problems would be exacerbated by the proposed Act’s shifting of planning authority away from regional governments to lower tier municipalities that are smaller and more vulnerable to developer pressures, because they are unable to support sufficiently large and sophisticated internal land use planning and legal departments.

It is hard to think of a more enticing target for corruption than unchecked municipal decisions to approve sprawl. By rubber-stamping an application to needlessly extend a settlement boundary and bulldoze farmland or wildlife habitat, a small town councilor could confer hundreds of millions in windfall wealth upon a real estate speculator who bought up farmland at a low price. Without the prospect of having to defend the legality of an approval at the Ontario Land Tribunal, the temptation to apply and succumb to inappropriate pressures and incentives is bound to become overwhelming.

Separately, Environmental Defence recommends that Bill 185 be amended to include a provision to permit residential apartment buildings of up to four units and up to one storey per unit, for any residentially zoned lot.