https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-2/bill-109
OHBA Summary
Our association encourages continued efforts to enhance the private sector’s ability to deliver more homes of all types and tenures for Ontarians. We believe this to be the key to unlocking the door to both home ownership and improved housing affordability.
- streamline municipal approval processes
- Site Plan Approvals done by staff rather than council as this enables municipal councils to focus on big picture decision making, while leaving technical review aspects of site plan approvals to qualified Professional Planners, Engineers, and Architects. Delegation of this authority province-wide to municipal staff should help to expedite site plan approval decisions resulting in significant service level improvements.
- enabling municipalities to reinstate draft plans of subdivision which have lapsed within a 5-year period without a new application will save both builders and municipalities time and accelerate the delivery of new housing supply.
- properly resource and staff the Ontario Land Tribunal
- thousands of potential housing units remain unnecessarily detained at the OLT
- Clearing the backlog of cases and improving the OLT process is needed
- implement a development approvals data standard to accelerate the building process
- applying complete application requirements to the site plan control process - 30 day timeline will also give more urgency for approvals of completed applications
- Standardizing plan of subdivision requirements province wide to reduce unnecessary hurdles in subdivision approval process
- retention of municipal planning staff across the province is a challenge - standardized data systems benefit municipalities and builders
- Would like to see consistent metrics across Ontario
- allow provincially owned lands be utilized for unique housing solutions
- Use provincial land assets to support core housing objectives municipally
- consider underutilized land assets owned by various agencies, boards, and commissions.
- Ontario Building Code changes to build more “missing middle” housing
- Expanding the code application of the CSA standard to be applicable to larger modular multi-residential homes to reduce red tape & remove complex code barriers
- a single stairwell means of egress for low-rise infill projects (with the secondary means of egress for fire safety being via a balcony).
- adoption of pay-on-demand surety bonds
- enables greater liquidity within the home building sector to reinvest more rapidly in additional new housing supply.
- Return of application fees
- service should occur in a timely manner as set out in the Planning Act
- some municipal councils indicate they will deny applications rather than risk a non-decision with a fee return – this is an abdication of responsibility and underlies one of the reasons we are in a housing crisis.
- strong need for greater accountability and transparency
- home builders should know how development related charges are utilized and whether they are used efficiently and/or within their scope.
- It is important that municipalities show publicly how consumer contributions through Development Charges, Parkland Dedications, and any Community Benefits support the achievement of complete communities
- OHBA & PKHBA supports the concept of growth paying for growth, however we are concerned by considerable increases in costs in recent years being passed onto new home buyers through cross-subsidization and some municipal councils attempting to utilize development related fees to subsidize capital costs that should be borne by the municipal tax base.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Summary
- Success of initiatives through Bill 109 - holding municipalities accountable and measuring performance - intent is to collect data consistently
- Fee refund requirements only apply to Zoning By Law amendments and Site Plan Applications and come into effect January 1, 2023
- Plans of subdivision lapses and reinstatement - change took effect April 14th 2022 and is limited to lapsed within last 5 years (since April 14, 2017) and can only be applied one time - if it lapses again in the future then it no longer qualifies for this provision
- Site Plan Approval changes to Planning Act came into effect July 1, 2022 - some municipalities needed to create a new by-law to delegate site plan approvals to staff
- Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator tool is not available yet as the guidelines for that program have not been published
- Regulation for province wide Surety Bond payments are not in effect yet (April 29, 2022)
- Province will decided which municipalities have transit oriented communities and where they are located
- The province will decide what the new tiered parkland dedication rate will be (up to 10% of 5 hectares or less and up to 15% of the land or its value for greater than 5 hectares)
- More transparency from municipalities with development charges
- Site Plan Control application timelines extended to 60 days
- Application Refunds (January 1, 2023)
- Zoning By Law Application fees
- 50% if no decision in 90 days (120 if concurrent with OP amendment application)
- 75% if no decision in 150 days (180 if concurrent with OP amendment application)
- 100% if no decision in 210 days (240 if concurrent with OP amendment app)
- Site Plan Control Application Fees
- 50% if no decision in 60 days of receiving complete application
- 75% if no decision in 90 days of receiving complete application
- 100% if no decision in 120 days of receiving complete application
Peterborough Opportunities
- streamline municipal approval processes
- Site Plan Approvals done by staff rather than council - faster service and approvals - follow the direction of the Official Plan
.jpg)