Minto generally agrees with…

Comment submitted on behalf of Minto Communities - Canada:

Minto generally agrees with the province’s policy direction of the new Provincial Planning Statement which eliminates unnecessary duplication of policy from the former PPS and Growth Plan. Many of the policies of the former Growth Plan plan were restrictive in terms of meeting its own growth targets.

Rather than repeating the comments we submitted in the consultation on the PPS last year, we wanted to highlight one issue that we believe would increase land supply in a material way and, therefore, help with housing supply and affordability.

The City of Ottawa has a policy (Official Plan policy 9.1.1 3) that allows the City to decide unilaterally if they would accept an Official Plan Amendment on lands currently designated Agricultural Resource Areas if they are less than 250 hectares. The City has blocked several landowners from even submitting an OPA with agricultural evaluations demonstrating the land should not be designated Agricultural Resource.

This has resulted in smaller pieces of land, often surrounded by development on three sides and with minimal agricultural value, remaining out of the urban boundary when a review would likely result in them being added. These parcels of land are close to infrastructure and should be considered.

We understand that similar issues are occurring in other municipalities, resulting in land that would otherwise be considered appropriate for development remaining excluded.

We would therefore propose the following language for a new clause in section 2.3.2 of the proposed PPS 2024:

"3. Planning authorities should consider opportunities to round out the boundaries of existing settlement areas where that would make efficient use of existing or planned infrastructure and should not establish a minimum area of land required to consider for a settlement area boundary expansion."

This would allow applications to be made, and then councils can ultimately decide on their merits.