Town eyes pre-consult development phase to manage province's deadlines

'A lot of times we’ll hear developers point the finger at staff for holding up and delaying projects... however, in reality, it’s mostly because developers don’t come to the table with all the information,' councillor says

Innisfiltoday.ca
July 7, 2023
Patrick Bales

More changes are in the works when it comes to development in the Town of Innisfil.

Not only did council move the process forward for a town-wide community planning permit system at its June 28 meeting, but it also directed staff to begin an Official Plan amendment that would change how developments are approved in the municipality.

The work is in response to the bevy of bills put in place by the Ontario government since the Conservatives were re-elected in June 2022, including Bill 23, Bill 101 and Bill 109. Staff began the process in February, and since then, Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act has been introduced, as well as a new draft provincial planning statement, designed to replace the 2020 statement and the growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

“The town’s response to the legislative changes requires a fundamental shift in how the town processes and engages with the community and applicants in the processing of development applications,” staff stated in a report. “Many of the existing application review processes allow for an iterative process with multiple re-submissions that require re-circulation to commenting departments and agencies. This process of working with applicants to refine an application means the time between application and approval is extended beyond the statutory timelines.”

If towns miss those timelines, they could stand to refund some of the development charges collected, under the new provisions of Bill 23. Staff are hopeful a pre-consultation process can help alleviate that threat.

Currently, pre-consultation mostly requires a conversation between the town and a developer, ultimately resulting in an application that is complete only in theory but not practice, with important reports often missing or inadequate in the town’s eyes.

Staff are proposing a two-step pre-consultation process. The standard meeting occurs, with additional formal guidelines from the town as to what materials will be “required to allow for a comprehensive assessment of the development application,” followed by a pre-application technical adequacy review, where the applicant submits the required documents, allowing for the town and external agencies to comment and determine the “quality and completeness of the submission” before the application is submitted.

This was a welcome change for Coun. Alex Waters, who felt municipal staff around the province has been unfairly singled out over development delays for too long.

“A lot of times we’ll hear developers point the finger at staff for holding up and delaying projects, permits. We’ve become targets of the province, and hence why we’ve had as many changes as we’ve have,” he said. “However, in reality, it’s mostly because developers don’t come to the table with all the information and we have to send it back and we have to review and review and review. I’m glad to see this pre-consultative process. They come to the table ahead of time and we tell them what they need to have.”

Waters mentioned that many conservation authorities have used a similar practice in the past to great success. He lamented the responsibilities being removed from the conversation authorities by the province and placed onto municipalities.

Under Bill 23, conservation authorities can no longer review natural heritage within settlement areas, including all settlements in the Lake Simcoe watershed established prior to the implementation of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. That puts the onus on the municipality to “review natural heritage features including significant wildlife habitat, threatened/endangered species, significant woodlands, significant valley lands, wetlands, fish habitat, minimum vegetation protection zone, and feature-based water balance,” within the Innisfil boundaries, with other municipalities in the watershed forced to do the same.

Waters – who worked for a conservation authority for 30 years and admitted his bias – thinks it’s not going to work.

“Where it used to be done by one body for the entire of Lake Simcoe, which was consistent and efficient, now every single municipality has to hire the appropriate staff to make comments on environmental issues... and hope they’re consistent,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, my opinion is it was a bad mistake because now it’s less efficient and less consistent. When you have environmental regulations, you want to be consistent across the board. You don’t want one municipality on one side of the lake doing something different or allowing something different than on our side of the lake.”

The councillor did ponder a way to circumvent the provincial direction: hiring the conversation authority as to be the town’s environmental expert for development applications. Andria Leigh, the town's director of planning and growth, said that’s ultimately a legal question, but wasn’t confident.

“We are still looking at that, but it is our understanding, under the legislation that it is specific as to the role they can play and not play,” she said.
The town also received a letter from MPP Steve Clark, minster of municipal housing and affairs, calling on Innisfil to commit to a “locally appropriate housing target” out to 2031 and develop a “municipal housing pledge to increase and accelerate housing supply.”

“While many municipalities have taken significant steps to increase their local housing supply, Ontario needs an unprecedented amount of new homes to meet current and anticipated demand,” Clark wrote. “As the province and municipalities work together to deliver on a commitment to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031, these pledges are critical to coordinate our efforts across governments.”

But council wasn’t ready to rubber-stamp the minister’s request. Coun. Kevin Eisses was keen to hear what staff felt about the issue before moving forward.

“Staff are currently working through a timeline and process to address a housing strategy for the town, given the growth allocations that were identified through the County [of Simcoe’s municipal comprehensive review] process -- understanding that document is still at the province hasn't been adopted and at the time it was put in place obviously the provincial framework was different  -- but we would still need to move forward in terms of a strategy on the type of housing [and] the locations,” Leigh said.

Mayor Lynn Dollin wants town staff’s opinion formalized before she and her colleagues commit the town to anything. To her knowledge, Innisfil was only one of three Simcoe County municipalities to receive such a request, which had been typically reserved for towns and cities near to or great than 100,000 people previously.

Merely receiving the letter as information and moving on might send the wrong message to the province, she worried.

“The only municipality that has dared not sign the pledge so far was Newmarket and we’re waiting to see what consequences may come from that,” Dollin said. “I see this as marching orders from the province, from my perspective.”