Many plans and studies are…

Many plans and studies are critical to ensuring safe, smart, integrated, equitable and sustainable development in any municipality. Focusing on engineering studies, the following are absolutely critical to implement the municipalities' key role in ensuring the above qualities of development, for any development application:
- grading and servicing plan
- site servicing and stormwater management report
- geotechnical study
- environmental site assessment when changing to a more sensitive use or in environmentally sensitive/risk-prone area
- erosion and sediment control plan for construction

For Plans of Subdivision or Condominium, the following must be required for draft plan approval:
- Functional Servicing Report
- Geotechnical Investigation
- Concept Grading/Servicing
- Environmental Site Assessment

No processes should change for Future Neighborhood Overlay Official Plan Amendments as they are rooted in Official Plans across the province, for example in the City of Ottawa. These processes are absolutely critical and master servicing studies must be complete prior to deeming any application for lifting an FNO complete to ensure integrated, equitable, sustainable development.

For general Official Plan Amendments and Zoning Bylaw Amendments, an adequacy of public services assessment is essential to ensure feasibility of servicing the proposed use. Without it, sites would be sold without a servicing plan and no means of going back to finance through municipalities as no structure would be in place to do so. Geotechnical studies should also be mandatory to ensure the soil can support the proposed use.

For urban & village boundary expansion OPAs, an infrastructure capacity assessment is an absolutely vital tool to ensure that boundaries are expanded with intention and feasibility of servicing, especially in considering the due costs associated with expanding off-site central systems. This inherently falls under the municipalities' purview, as expanding water & wastewater central systems is a key component of any municipalities' decision-making as identified in their respective infrastructure master plans. Further, the costs associated are significant and can affect several surrounding stakeholders, meaning it is necessary to set clear intentions of the municipalities to identify conceptual costs associated with servicing options to feasibly expand the boundary as developers request. This is one of the most important planning considerations for any municipality in general, and must be taken seriously with intention and a mandatory infrastructure capacity assessment will do so, including the need for identifying conceptual costs for off-site trunk servicing upgrades needed to service the proposed expansion lands.