Proposal to reform site plan control under the Planning Act and the City of Toronto Act, 2006

The government is seeking public feedback on proposed legislative changes under the proposed Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026 and related regulatory changes to further support housing, economic, and infrastructure development, and advance key transportation and transit priorities.

Site plan control is not working as it was intended and can take years instead of the 60-day legislated timeline set out in the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006. 

In connection with the proposed Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026 , the government is seeking feedback from the public and impacted stakeholders on bold and transformational reforms with the goal of enabling a faster, more predictable, cost effective and coordinated municipal site plan process. 

Background

Site plan control is an optional land use planning tool under section 41 of the Planning Act and section 114 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006.

It is primarily intended as an administrative, technical tool municipalities may use to help ensure that health and safety as well as functional aspects of a proposed development are addressed, prior to the issuance of a building permit.

Through the site plan process, proponents are required to submit plans and drawings displaying matters such as building placement, access for pedestrians and vehicles, walkways, lighting, waste facilities, drainage and publicly accessible open spaces.

Municipalities can apply conditions to a site plan approval and require the owner to enter into one or more agreements to provide and maintain facilities. This could include widenings of roads that border the subject land, providing access to the property, and ensuring sufficient off-street parking and loading facilities (e.g. for waste management).

Site plan control is not meant as a means to revisit the principle of development. Allowable land uses, height, density, setbacks and other matters pertaining to built form would already have been addressed at the zoning stage and should be considered as of right.

A site plan approval is not a public process, meaning sections 41 and 114 do not include public notification, public meeting or hearing requirements. In addition, council must delegate the decision to approve a site plan application to an officer, employee or agent of the municipality.

The Planning Act and the City of Toronto Act, 2006 include a timeframe whereby if a municipality fails to approve a site plan application within 60 days, a proponent may appeal this non-decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). 

What We’ve Heard

Stakeholders involved in building housing and other development have expressed that the municipal site plan approvals process is taking too long – sometimes years. 

Stakeholders ascribe this to a lack of internal coordination across municipal departments and a lack of consistency and certainty across municipal departments and between municipalities. Past stakeholder feedback suggests site plan comments can be uncoordinated, unfocused, general rather than being solution oriented and received late in the site plan approvals process. This can lead to more circulations, delayed approvals and increased costs.

In 2013, the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) commissioned the Altus Group to track and analyze municipal site plan approval timelines through a series of commissioned studies. These reports highlight the economic impact of lengthy site plan approvals on housing supply and affordability in Ontario.

According to the most recent 2024 Altus/OAA report, municipalities across Ontario take an average of 23 months to review site plan applications, up from an estimated 6 months at the time of the 2018 edition of the report, exceeding the government’s 60-day timeline. 

The 2024 Altus/OAA report documents site plan approval timelines by development type and notes that residential projects averaged 16 months, mixed-use projects averaged 23 months, and non-residential developments averaged 35 months.

These results were weighted against the timeline found in the 2024 BILD GTA Municipal Benchmarking Report results and the CHBA Canada-Wide Municipal Benchmarking Report results which provide data on the length of time it takes to review site plan applications in some of Ontario’s larger municipalities. The results of these two reports also show that a site plan application can take between 18 and 23 months to review, not including the pre-consultation period.

The 2024 Altus/OAA report also examines indirect monthly and annual costs associated with the lengthy site plan approvals process. For example, the report highlights that for a 100-unit apartment building, delays in site plan approvals are resulting in additional monthly costs ranging from $230,000 to $299,000. The calculation of additional monthly costs factors in costs such as additional property taxes paid each month, opportunity/financing costs per month and the cost of inflation on construction materials and labour. The report also considers costs to a municipality through lost property tax revenue, as land remains vacant or underutilized.

The 2013 OAA/Bousfields/Altus report identifies the following barriers that may be leading to these delays:

• Incomplete applications and delayed applicant response with approximately 50 per cent of applications requiring three or more resubmission cycles, each adding two to four weeks.
• Administrative and agency-related factors like delays in circulations between departments, in consistent and conflicting comments from departments and external agencies.
• The integration of design review panels or other types of committees that contribute to longer approval timelines.

Overall, the government continues to hear that section 41 of the Planning Act and section 114 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006 are not being implemented consistently and effectively across municipalities and that a reform of site plan is required to speed up the approvals process and reduce overall associated costs.

Steps Taken to Date

Legislative and process-based challenges expressed by stakeholders regarding the site plan approvals process are not new. Over the last several years and through multiple bills, the government has made changes to the planning system that directly impact site plan control, with a goal of streamlining the site plan approvals process, speeding up approvals and reducing costs. These changes include:

Bill 60

As part of Bill 60, the government consulted on municipal requirements for enhanced development standards (EDS) at the lot level, with a goal of streamlining policies and prohibiting municipalities from requiring these standards, while continuing to ensure, health, safety, accessibility and protection of adjoining lands (e.g. environmental functionality). This work impacts the site plan approvals process ERO #026-0309.

Bill 17

As part of Bill 17, the government made changes to scope complete application requirements that will provide more consistent rules across all municipalities on the information and studies that may be needed for planning applications, including those related to site plan control; and greater recognition of planning reports prepared by certified professionals ERO #026-0314.

This work is ongoing and would be applicable to all municipalities across Ontario. 

Bill 17 also clarified that municipalities are not permitted to require building standards that exceed the Building Code.

Bill 185

As part of Bill 185, changes were made to the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006 to create a discretionary authority to apply a lapsing condition (i.e., “use it or lose it” deadline placed on a site plan approval) when approving a new site plan application, and/or adding a lapsing condition for site plans they have previously approved. 

Bill 185 also removed the ability of a municipality to require a pre-consultation meeting; however, when a proponent requests one, the municipality must accommodate the request.

Bill 23

Bill 23 made changes to the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006 to restrict the ability for municipalities to use site plan control for most residential developments with 10 or fewer units. 

Changes were also made to remove municipal ability to regulate exterior architectural design (also called “architectural control”) and to limit their ability to regulate aesthetic aspects of landscape design.

Bill 109

As part of Bill 109, changes streamlined requirements and approval processes to incent timely municipal decisions by:

• Extending the timeline for municipalities to review site plan control applications from 30 to 60 days to incent timely municipal decisions,
• Applying complete application requirements to site plan, and
• Requiring that site plan control decisions are made by staff (instead of municipal councils or committees of council).

Site Plan – Current State 

MMAH reviewed site plan control by-laws, guidance, official plans, and web pages of the 29 large and fast-growing municipalities to determine the implementation status of these legislative changes. This review suggests that changes are not being consistently implemented by municipalities. In many instances, these documents are out of date and only some municipalities are applying all of the Planning Act changes from the past few years. It is not uncommon to have to read a site plan control by-law, site plan guideline, an official plan and a municipal webpage to piece together the full site plan approvals process.

This review found instances where municipalities are continuing to require elements of site plan control that the Planning Act has removed. This includes exterior architectural design and aesthetic aspects of landscape design and exempting residential developments of ten units or less from site plan approval. Other municipalities have exempted these developments from site plan control but have created a separate process under other municipal by-laws that effectively replicates the site plan review process. It should be noted that whatever the case may be the requirements of the Planning Act for site plan control still apply.

There are also many examples of where site plan is being used as a key municipal tool for implementing urban design policies.  

Potential Reforms to Municipal Site Plan Approvals

The following potential reforms to municipal site plan approvals reflect both Provincial and stakeholder concerns that the site plan process is taking too long. These potential reforms are intended to generate discussion on these challenges and work towards solutions that would enable a faster, more predictable, cost effective and coordinated site plan approval process. 

Proposed reforms include:

1. Remove site plan control as a land use planning tool in the Planning Act and the City of Toronto Act, 2006.
2. Require municipalities to have a maximum of three circulations after which a mandatory meeting is triggered with all relevant municipal department representatives and the applicant to work through and resolve all outstanding issues.
3. Further scope the site plan review process to a standard site plan approval checklist of functional aspects of a site (e.g., those related to health and safety), with use of certified professionals for acceptance and approval of reports and studies. A municipality is not permitted to request additional studies and plans beyond what is included in the standard site plan approval checklist. If technical and drawing requirements identified in the checklist are met, site plan approval is issued.
4. Establish or require a municipal arbitration process / site plan review panel for site plan applications that have exceeded the government’s 60-day timeline and a specified number of circulations. Participants in this process would include the applicant and the municipal development review team. This would be an alternative to a hearing at the OLT with a goal of speeding up approvals and cutting down on associated costs. An arbitration process / site plan review panel decision-making timeline could be applied to ensure timely decisions on approvals.
5. Establish or require municipalities to establish different site plan approval streams for different kinds of proposed development, with corresponding scope of matters that may be controlled. This would mean that a “full” site plan process would only be permitted for larger, complex development initiatives resulting in fewer matters being regulated through site plan control. Less complex development would be triaged to a more expedited stream or could be exempted from site plan control completely.

Potential Outcomes

The government intends to pursue significant reform to site plan control. Feedback received through this consultation will inform future changes to site plan.

Impact on the Environment

This consultation is being undertaken to gather input and does not propose any immediate changes to legislation, regulation or policy. As such, there are no direct environmental impacts associated with this posting at this time.

Analysis of Regulatory Impact

No legislative, regulatory or policy changes are being proposed as part of this consultation. The Ministry intends to engage stakeholders to explore reforms to the site plan approvals process. Should any changes be considered in the future because of this consultation, a Regulatory Impact Assessment will be prepared in accordance with government decision-making processes.

Provide Feedback

We welcome your thoughts on these suggested reforms and/or other reforms you feel will speed up site plan approvals.

1. Have questions? Get in touch at the email provided below. Please include the ERO number for this notice in your email or letter to the contact.