May 10, 2024 Via e-mail …

May 10, 2024

Via e-mail (MFPB@ontario.ca) and online submission
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
777 Bay Street, 17th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2J3

Dear Sirs/Mesdames

Re: ERO No. 019-8369
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)

I am pleased to provide these comments on behalf of RioCan Management Inc., and its related entities (“RioCan”), which have interests in various properties throughout the province of Ontario with a concentration of properties in the Greater Toronto Area (the “GTA”), including significant interests in the City of Toronto, the City of Brampton, the City of Oshawa, and the City of Vaughan as well as in the greater Ottawa region.

The purpose of this letter is to provide RioCan’s focused comments on two components of Bill 185. First, while RioCan supports the Province’s objective of facilitating the development of new housing faster and streamlining the land use planning and development process, we have significant concerns with the scope of Bill 185’s proposed curtailment of appeal rights for official plan and zoning matters. We are particularly concerned with this aspect of Bill 185, as the proposed change has the potential to undermine the facilitation of more housing on a timely basis by negatively altering the balance inherent in the planning process that promotes collaboration between applicants and municipal planning authorities.

Second, we are concerned with the timing implications of the introduction of lapsing provisions into the site plan approvals process. Although RioCan supports initiatives that encourage the construction of approved housing units, the introduction of site plan approval lapsing provision, has the potential to frustrate the provision of such housing, particularly on large complicated sites like many of the development sites in the RioCan portfolio.

RioCan and its Development Interests in Ontario:

Founded in 1993, RioCan was one of the first real estate investment trusts in Canada. Today, RioCan has interests in over 200 properties that span retail, residential and mixed-use developments located in Canada's major markets in high-density, transit-oriented areas. As of March 31, 2024, RioCan’s development pipeline included more than 40 million square feet of development, including 1.1 million square feet under construction, 1.7 million square feet shovel ready and 14.5 million square feet with zoning approval.

RioCan is currently pursuing or finalizing development applications for numerous properties in the province of Ontario including large mixed-use development applications for transit supportive sites in the City of Toronto (including but not limited to: the Well, Leaside Centre, Dufferin Plaza, 3180 Dufferin, Yonge and Roehampton, Scarborough Centre, 2990 Eglinton, RioCan Hall, 11YV, 83 Bloor, Queen & Ashbridge) and the larger GTA area (including but not limited to Colossus Centre in Vaughan and Sandalwood Square in Missisauga). These in-process developments will provide a significant number of new housing units, in addition to enhanced retail and commercial opportunities in these major centres.

In moving these and other significant development projects forward RioCan has worked closely to coordinate its development objectives and its associated Planning Act applications with municipally initiated instruments including Secondary Plans and area-specific zoning by-laws. Recent examples of this coordinated process have occurred in the City of Toronto on the Dupont Street Corridor (Dupont Street Secondary Plan) where RioCan’s Lithos development was recently constructed, and on Eglinton Avenue East at Leaside Centre supporting the Crosslinx Eglinton Light Rail Transit (Laird in Focus Secondary Plan). This process is also currently underway in the City of Vaughan where RioCan has made application for Official Plan amendment for the redevelopment of its RioCan Colossus Centre and is working to coordinate its efforts with the City of Vaughan’s Weston 7 Secondary Plan process.

Bill 185 Proposed Limitations on Appeal Rights

In a number of the development examples noted above, RioCan and the municipality in question were able to work through RioCan’s applications and the municipally initiated secondary plan process that applied to the lands to reach innovative and mutually beneficial solutions through a combination of application modifications, and strategic appeals of both the RioCan applications and the municipal Secondary Plan to the Ontario Land Tribunal (the “Tribunal”). In each instance, a resolution was reached between RioCan and the municipality with the assistance of Tribunal assisted mediation that resulted in complete settlements that were subsequently approved by the Tribunal.

Without the ability to appeal both its privately initiated Planning Act applications and that ability to appeal the associated municipally initiated Secondary Plans, that applied to the project lands, the successful resolution of these significant applications and the timely provision of housing would have been threatened, resulting in delays and limiting the development potential of these transit supportive lands. Further, even in instances where approvals are obtained without the need to appeal to the Tribunal, the tension created in the process between private applications and municipally initiated Secondary Plan processes that cover the same lands by the ability to appeal both types of approvals has lead to mutually beneficial cooperative results.

Although we understand that curtailing appeal rights for true “third parties” – i.e. those whose lands are not subject to the Council-approved amendments – may be necessary to address delays in getting shovels in the ground, we are concerned that the legislation as currently proposed goes far beyond prohibiting third party appeals. Prohibiting appeals from landowners with lands that are directly subject to the amendments in question (such as would be the case of a municipally initiated Secondary Plan) is unfair, inappropriate and will not serve the Province’s stated objectives. RioCan therefore urges the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to amend Bill 185 to (at minimum) maintain landowners’ rights to appeal official plan and zoning amendments that directly affect them. Doing so is essential to create the balance that allows a collaborative, creative and mutually beneficial approach to planning that in RioCan’s experience produces the best results.

Bill 185 and the Lapsing of Site Plan Approval

As noted above, RioCan’s land holdings and property interests include a number of large complicated sites which are currently operating as retail and commercial destinations. These land holdings are often located at key intersections on transit supportive lands, and the development of these larger operating retail and commercial sites requires a significant amount of co-ordination between RioCan, its tenants and the municipal approvals process. Further, the Site Plan approval process is itself inherently unpredictable with approvals timelines that remain in flux despite the Province’s efforts to facilitate expedited Site Plan approvals.

If a municipality were to take advantage of the opportunity provided by Bill 185 to put in place site plan approval lapsing provisions, the associated timelines would threaten construction timelines on these complicated developments sites by imposing an artificial deadline for construction. While RioCan is working to relocate a tenant to facilitate the ability to construct for example, the lapsing of an associated site plan approval could create an ongoing approvals loop resulting in significant administrative process, significant frustration and little construction.

RioCan therefore urges the Province to amend Bill 185 to remove the option to create lapsing provisions for Site Plan approvals, or if such a lapsing is determined necessary to limit its application or create a significant window of time for construction to occur that is significantly greater than 3 years.

Development Charges:

Although the focus of this letter is to appeal limitations and site plan approval lapsing provisions, RioCan would note that it has not yet the run the detailed analysis necessary to determine the impacts of the proposed changes to the Development Charge regime proposed in Bill 185. It would be our hope that the resolution of these Development Charge changes would not put an additional burden to the end user and would facilitate the construction of much needed housing.

Conclusions:

RioCan appreciates and supports the Province’s committing to addressing the many obstacles to obtain approvals for and construct new homes on Ontario. We appreciate the opportunity to make these comments and would be happy to discuss these comments and Bill 185 further with Ministry staff as would be helpful.

Yours very truly,

Anton Katipunan, Vice President, Development
RioCan REIT