Major reforms to the way objections to local planning decisions are dealt with passed through the Ontario Legislature just before the Christmas break.
The Building Better Communities and Conserving Watersheds Act, 2017, was approved Dec. 12, changing the way appeals of planning decisions in Ontario are heard.
Mark Cripps, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, said appeals made before the legislation received royal assent will be dealt with through the old system, the Ontario Municipal Board.
"There will be a transition period between the old system and the new system,” Cripps said in an interview.
The new legislation replaces the OMB with Local Planning Appeals Tribunals. Unlike the old system, which dealt with objections by starting from scratch, the tribunals will simply decide whether a decision by a city council conforms with local and provincial policies.
"Under the new rules, a decision by a council can only be considered to be appealed if it doesn't conform or isn't consistent with their current Official Plan," Cripps said. "Before, an unelected OMB could overrule municipal decisions. Now the system will give more weight, more deference to local decisions.
"If the municipality makes a decision, and that decision is completely consistent and conforms to its Official Plan, then someone can appeal it and the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal will just look at the decision and say, this conforms, so there's no appeal."
The goal is to have quicker decisions, he said, and to give more weight to the wishes of local city councils, who know their communities better than anyone.
"Municipalities put all this work into planning, the work that goes into developing an Official Plan, the consultation, the public input, all that stuff, basically becomes mute," Cripps said, of the old system under the OMB.
"Municipalities were saying to us, enough is enough. We need to plan our own communities. We're the elected officials here, let us make decisions. As long as we're following our Official Plans, which the province approved, then that should be the realm through which decisions are made."
The legislation also provides supports for neighbourhood or individual objections to planning decisions. Under the OMB, anyone making an objection had the onus to work through the paperwork and hire experts to present evidence at a hearing.
The new rules will see the creation of local support centres that will offer technical advice to residents on how to launch an appeal, legal and planning advice and, in some cases, will help with legal representation at a tribunal hearing.
"It's going to take some time to get the citizen liaison office infrastructure set up,” Cripps said. "The goal is to have everything up and running early next year ... But they will, in a lot of ways, level the playing field."
The legislation also mandates mediation between the two parties early in the process, with a goal of reducing the time the process takes.
"So we know decisions will be made quicker,” Cripps said, although how much faster remains to be seen.
“I've never seen any metrics on it, in terms of how fast ... But you won't be going through hearings where witnesses are called. The tribunal will call witnesses, not the defence, not the proponent."
