The province is looking at major changes to the planning approvals process to give local councils more control, and city staff are generally in support of the changes.
Members of the planning committee Monday approved a staff report outlining the changes and the city's official responses. The biggest single reform would be the elimination of the Ontario Municipal Board, an often controversial body that has ultimate control of all planning decisions in Ontario.
In its place, the province wants to bring in Local Planning Appeal Tribunals (LPAT), which would be located in each municipality, rather than Toronto. Similar to the OMB, it would be made up of independent representatives who operate at arms-length from the municipality.
Unlike the OMB, however, the tribunals wouldn't start from scratch every time there's an appeal, and make their own decisions. Instead, the tribunal could mandate mediation between the parties before a hearing is held. And in the first stage of the appeal, they would only rule on whether the decision followed provincial and municipal policies.
“If the LPAT decides that the decision conforms, then the appeal is dismissed,” the report says. “If non-conformity is determined, the LPAT will send their determination back to the municipal council for reconsideration. Council will have 90 days to reconsider the matter and make a new decision. If municipal council fails to correct the non-conformity after reconsidering its decision, then a second appeal would proceed through the Phase 2 LPAT process, at which time the tribunal has the power to modify the official plan or zoning by-law to resolve the matter.”
In Phase 2, the tribunal can opt to re-examine the decision entirely. The LPATs can also decide to hold oral or written hearings, set time limits for arguments and not allow cross-examination of witnesses.
That's welcome news for city planning staff, who routinely are called to testify at OMB hearings, which operate as though every decision is a new case, requiring multiple hearings and written submissions.
“Staff are supportive of this change,” the report says. “Over the past 4 1/2 years, the city has spent approximately $130,000 annually on external legal fees and disbursements for OMB hearings,” the report says. “This does not include staff preparation time, including the preparation of the exhibit book, which averages between two to three days in most cases, but in certain cases can be considerably longer.
“Under the new process, there is potential for a number of the smaller hearings to be resolved through the mandatory case conference or mediation and time that was previously devoted to hearing preparation will be replaced by participation in the mediation process.”
