The provincial government’s recent More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022 (Bill 109) won’t speed up planning decisions or improve housing affordability, according to Kirk Biggar, a manager in the town’s planning department.
But it could cost local taxpayers big dollars.
New rules forcing the town to refund planning application fees if it misses approval deadlines will put annual revenues of about $2.9 million at risk.
Financial penalties for delayed approvals will come into effect at the start of 2023.
In a presentation to town council on April 25, Biggar couldn’t say how often the planning department fails to meet deadlines for applications but noted that “90 days goes by pretty quickly.”
On a zoning application, the rules will force the town to refund half of the fee if it fails to rule within 90 days and the full fee if it doesn’t issue a decision within 180 days.
The town currently charges a base fee of $27,830 for a zoning application. Additional fees apply to multi-unit residential or commercial applications.
Ward 4 councillor Allan Elgar warned that the public doesn’t have a good enough sense of the potential costs of the legislation.
“The buzzwords sound good -- more homes, more choices, and everything’s perfect in la la land -- but this is scary, the impact it could have on our constituents.”
Mayor Rob Burton added that a one-deadline-fits-all approach to planning doesn’t make sense in a development world where every application is different.
“We’re getting blamed in a simplistic way for something that is actually way more complicated than the province is admitting to right now,” he said.
The “punitive approach” to application fees will lead to more litigation at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), higher costs and longer delays, predicts a staff report that will be submitted to the province as Oakville’s official feedback on the legislation.
It adds that the timing and duration of planning applications are often beyond the town’s control and sometimes caused by delayed responses from applicants or other public agencies, including provincial agencies.
“The buzzwords sound good -- more homes, more choices and everything’s perfect in la la land -- but this is scary, the impact it could have on our constituents.”
That report notes that many provincial changes have been “pushed through without appropriate and meaningful consultation,” and without the detail the town needs to respond effectively.
Bill 109 was born out of recommendations released earlier this year by a provincial task force on housing affordability. With a laser focus on increasing supply, the task force urged Doug Ford's government to eliminate zoning rules that limit neighbourhoods to single-family homes, speed up approvals and curb public participation in development applications.
Critics -- including the town -- have argued that the task force lacked municipal input and appeared bent on increasing developer convenience and profit, without any guarantee that would make housing more affordable.
Task force recommendations would "gut" Oakville's official plan, councillors warn
Town staff do support proposals that would expand secondary suites and multi-tenant housing options, as well as allowing buildings of six to 11 storeys along streets served by higher-order public transit, such as Dundas Street and Trafalgar Road north of Midtown Oakville.
Biggar said Oakville is already planning complete communities and has approved at least two applications for more than 6,000 housing units over the last two years.
“We’re doing a lot to get housing built and to get people into homes in Oakville,” he said.
The report’s conclusion on the new provincial legislation warns of “unintended consequences” that town staff believe will make planning and development slower and more expensive.
“In other words, housing supply and affordability will be negatively affected,” it says.
