Environmental Registry of…

Environmental Registry of Ontario #: 026-0300

Township of Oro-Medonte Comment

It is unclear how the proposed revisions will remove barriers to home construction when many of the terms utilized within Official Plans across the Province are currently standardized. Updates to Official Plans are required to conform to the PPS, which establish a set of terms for land uses. Such legislation is not required as the planning process already requires Provincial terms to be utilized within Official Plans.

Standardization of Official Plans may not be representative of local municipal needs.
Financial impacts are anticipated for municipalities that have recently updated or prepared new Official Plans to conform to the PPS resulting in the need to re-due Official Plans that have been recently updated.

Removal of the requirement to address greenhouse gas emissions in official plans will significantly reduce the Township’s ability to address climate considerations through planning decisions.

Changes to Parkland requirements along with the process represents a developer centric framework having the ability to force municipalities to accept certain lands despite Master Parks Recreation Plans that define municipal needs. The process will also require enhanced legal consideration resulting in expense to municipalities as various legal agreements and OLT proceedings will result. These lands may have encumbrances which may limit functionality and
future parkland development.

It is unclear how the proposed changes will result in expedited home
construction when the process appears to be moving towards a legal, litigious framework which typically leads to delayed land use decisions. Moreover, longer term community considerations will be impacted without measurable benefits.