Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie said municipalities have been waiting "for about 100 years" for the type of sweeping changes the province is proposing to land use appeals in
"And that's not even a joke," Guthrie said. "It's been a long time coming."
On Tuesday, the province announced those proposed changes, which include the elimination of the Ontario Municipal Board and making it easier – and less expensive – for the public to engage in the process of appealing city planning decisions.
"I think more weight has been given to both citizens and cities – the cities' own planning and policies that are in place," said Guthrie, who was part of a conference call with other mayors and provincial ministers earlier Tuesday.
"The way it used to be was very adversarial and the decision would come as a ruling from the OMB. It looks like now these changes are going to be more about sending them back to the local level where city's can look at it again and see if they're own planning policies were not followed."
New legislation will be introduced at Queen's Park in the coming weeks and the province hopes they will be in place for 2018.
The changes cover a wide-range of reforms, many stemming from an extensive review of the process over the past couple of years that involved input from all stakeholders.
Most significantly it would eliminate the Ontario Municipal Board in favour of a new Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.
They include:
- the establishment of a Local Planning Appeal Support Centre that would provide planning and legal advice to citizens, and in some cases represent them at hearings.
- give more power and protection to municipal planning decisions, exempting a broader range from the appeal process, including official plans and official plan updates.
- give more authority to local appeal bodies, who would be able to hear appeals on site plans, in addition to their current scope of minor variances and consents.
Guthrie said not only do the new recommendations streamline the process and what can be appealed, it also eases administrative elements, will save money and generally "make things a lot more efficient for everybody involved."
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Guthrie asked at the morning conference call with the province about cost of the new programs and said he was told those costs would not be downloaded to municipalities.
The changes should also reduce the number of appeals on planning matters, something the Mayor said is welcome.
"Nobody wants frivolous challenges coming forward," Guthrie said. "Every council has frivolous types of things that can come forward and bog the system down for everybody and cost money."
Guthrie gave a lot of credit to city councillor Cathy Downer, who was heavily involved in the OMB reform process both locally and provincially.
"On the surface it looks like good news," said Downer, who was part of provincial OMB Reform Working Group, "but I'm going to wait until I see the actual wording."
She said it would appear to allow municipalities to better "realize the aspirations of their communities."
She called the OMB process "ridiculous", "time consuming" and expensive.
Downer also praised the fact it will make it simpler and less expensive for individuals and neighbourhood groups to be involved.
The actual wording of the bill should be available in the next two weeks.
