BUILDING DURHAM

Consultations could result in largest expansion of the protected lands since 2005

TORONTO ― The Ontario government has launched a 60-day consultation to grow the Greenbelt and help protect more of the province's natural environment — including farmlands, forests, wetlands and watersheds — from future development. The consultations could result in the largest expansion of the greenbelt since its creation in 2005.

"This is truly a unique opportunity to grow the Greenbelt and protect Ontario's environmental, groundwater and agricultural resources for future generations," said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. "The Premier has been steadfast in his commitment to protect the Greenbelt and our government will not consider any proposals to remove or develop any part of it."

The government is seeking public input on how best to grow the size and quality of the Greenbelt, including:

• the Paris Galt Moraine
• adding, expanding and further protecting urban river valleys, and increasing the Greenbelt's footprint into high density urban areas including the areas around the Don River in Toronto and land around Duffins Creek in Ajax and Pickering.

Comments are welcome by email: greenbeltconsultation@ontario.ca or through the Environmental Registry of Ontario by April 19, 2021.

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The City of Pickering is undertaking a comprehensive Housing Strategy Study that will provide a framework to ensure the City enables a supply of suitable, adequate and affordable housing for the present and future residents of Pickering. The Housing Strategy Study will focus on the need for delivering a diverse range of housing options, including affordable and accessible units to accommodate residents of all ages, abilities and income levels.

The City of Pickering will be hosting an electronic meeting from 2:30 - 4:30 PM on Thursday, February 25^th, targeted to the building/development and government/not-for-profit sector involved in housing/affordable housing. The meeting will provide interested organizations the opportunity to learn more about the Housing Strategy Study, ask questions and provide feedback. The Study is recently launched and in its first phase.

If you are interested in joining the meeting, please respond to Margaret Kish at mkish@pickering.ca by noon on Wednesday, February 24^th. Please ensure that you provide the email address you wish to be contacted at so that you can be connected via audio and video to the meeting. You will be provided with an electronic link prior to the meeting in a separate email.

There will be a short presentation of the overview of the Study by the project team at 2:30 pm followed by an opportunity to ask questions and share your thoughts on affordable housing. Attached are some Stakeholder Discussion Questions to get the discussion started. You are encouraged to review these questions and the information about the Study on the City’s website at pickering.ca/Housing Strategy prior to the electronic meeting.

Your comments will help inform the development of a Draft Housing Strategy and Action Plan that will be presented to the public, stakeholders and the Planning & Development Committee for comments at a future date.

Your comments and/or questions regarding the Housing Strategy Study can be forwarded to:

Margaret Kish, MCIP, RPP

Principal Planner, Policy

City Development Department

Tel: 905.420.4660, ext. 2196

Email: mkish@pickering.ca

For more information please visit our website at pickering.ca/Housing Strategy

More information is also available in this information package.

At the January 18th, 2021 meeting, Clarington council passes their new Development Charge Bylaw.

The new bylaw can be found here and here.  The new bylaw increases the development charge from $18,148 to $21,461, an increase of 18% ($3,313) for a single detached home.

DRHBA worked with a stakeholder group, and notified council of a few outstanding issues in this letter.

DRHBA is also aware that Clarington may need to amend their DC Bylaw within the next few years as their secondary plans move forward, and will notify members if this happens.

MPP Lindsey Park will be hosing a virtual town hall on the GO Train expansion to Bowmanville on Tuesday February 2 at 7:00 p.m with Metrolinx President & CEO Phil Verster.

This is an opportunity for you to hear directly from Metrolinx on the Bowmanville GO Train expansion project and to ask your questions of the Metrolinx team.  Questions may be submitted during the event.  No RSVP is required.

A link to the townhall page will be posted here one hour before the start of the event.

The Town of Ajax is considering a zoning bylaw amendment that will impact residential driveways. 

According to the Town, the amendments to the bylaw will facilitate numerous Town objectives, such as:

• Allowing property owners to address parking needs on their own private properties
• Alleviating issues resulting from on-street parking
• Providing more flexibility to property owners who wish to undertake landscaping improvements on their properties
• Maximizing the number of legal parking spaces that can be accommodated on existing driveways
• Reducing the administrative burden of minor driveway-related applications
• Matching zoning bylaw standards to current and desirable forms of driveway design
• Enabling the Town to prevent undesirable forms of driveway design
• Simplifying existing zoning bylaw standards
• Facilitating storm water management through the preservation of existing landscape features
• Creating a consistent policy framework where zoning bylaw standards directly align with other municipal documents impacted by the recently approved Boulevard Encroachment Policy.

Two electronic public open houses will be held on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.  The first session will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the second will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

More information can be found here.

The City of Oshawa has undertaken a Development Charge Update Study to become compliant with Bill 108 changes.  The background study has been released, and can be viewed here.

According to the background study, the proposed new DC fees would increase by $1,020 (4%) per single detached.

The public meeting will be held on March 1, 2021 at 9:30 a.m.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact Stacey Hawkins.

Durham Region Home Builders' Association and Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) support today’s provincial government action to combat rising COVID-19 cases. While new home building and renovations may continue with strict protocols in place, the industry recognizes the important responsibility that comes with being an essential workplace designation.

“The members of the Durham Region Home Builders' Association  have been enhancing their health and safety protocols by providing additional sanitation, applying physical distancing rules, illness reporting and logging the number of workers on job sites. Builders, renovators and suppliers are all working to keep our workers, clients and communities safe,”says Johnathan Schickedanz, DRHBA president.

Today’s announcement is a necessary step to curb the growth in cases and support the health care system while the process of vaccination ramps up. Under the measures announced this afternoon, construction activities and supporting services may continue with enhanced COVID-19 protocols and inspections in place. Sales centres for new developments must move to virtual and/or appointment only.

“We all want to be safe at home and at work,” said Joe Vaccaro, CEO of OHBA. “With these new restrictions, the Ontario government continues to make public safety the priority. Across Ontario, industry members have been continuously enhancing their health and safety and COVID-19 protocols. All of our members, from builders to renovators to suppliers, will continue to focus on public and worker safety while ensuring that thousands of families get the keys to the homes they have been waiting for across Ontario.”

View the province's full list of regulations here.

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic District School Board passed their respective EDC bylaws on December 16, 2020.

The new rates will come into effect on January 1, 2021.

View/download KPRDSB Bylaw

View/download PVNCCDSB Bylaw 

 

Last week the provincial government passed legislative amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act and the Planning Act, as set out in the Budget Measures Act (Bill 229), which are intended to:

• Improve consistency and transparency of the programs and services that CAs deliver;         
• Provide additional oversight for municipalities and the province; and
• Streamline CA permitting and land use planning reviews to increase accountability, consistency and transparency.

A summary of the legislative amendments is below (from www.ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-2646):

• Revise the objects of CAs (i.e., the range of activities conservation authorities are allowed to undertake) to reflect the three categories of programs and services that the CA  is currently authorized to deliver under the Conservation Authorities Act over the area over which it has jurisdiction:
• 1. Core mandatory programs and services described above
  2. The programs and services which conservation authorities deliver on behalf of a municipality pursuant to a memorandum of understanding or agreement, and
  3. The programs and services that a conservation authority delivers to further the purposes of the Conservation Authorities Act
• Enable the minister to, by regulation, establish standards and requirements for the delivery of non-mandatory programs and services.
• Integrate the current power of a CA to “cause research to be done” with the CA’s current power to study and investigate the watershed in order to support the programs and services the conservation authority delivers.
• Remove the authority for CAs to expropriate lands. CAs would have the ability to request either the Province or a municipality expropriate land.
• Require CAs to follow generally accepted accounting principles.
• Require CAs to make key documents publicly available online.
• Have all municipal levy appeals be heard by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT).
• Require participating municipalities to appoint municipal councillors as CA members and that municipally appointed members generally act on behalf of their municipalities.
• Enable the minister to delegate some of their duties and powers under the Conservation Authorities Act, for example to a ministry official.

The province made further changes to the Conservation Authorities Act to streamline the role of CAs in permitting and land use planning as well to ensure timely decisions are made in relation to permits required under section 28 of the Act including:

• Authorize the Minister of MNRF to issue an order to take over and decide an application for a permit under section 28 of the Conservation Authorities Act in place of the CA.
• Allow an applicant, within 30 days of a CA issuing a permit, with or without conditions, or denying a permit, to request the minister to review the CA’s decision.
• Where the minister has taken over a permit application or is reviewing a permit decision by a CA, allow an applicant to appeal directly to LPAT where the minister fails to make a decision within 90 days.
• In addition to the provision to seek a minister’s review, provide the applicant with the ability to appeal a permit decision to LPAT within 90 days after the CA has made a decision.
• Where a permit is cancelled, allow the permit holder to appeal the cancellation to LPAT within 90 days.
• Allow applicants to appeal directly to LPAT where a CA fails to make a decision on section 28 permit applications within 120 days.
• Provide permit applicants with the ability to appeal permit fees charged by a CA to LPAT.
• Remove the un-proclaimed provisions for CAs to be able to issue stop work orders and retain the current enforcement tools, such as laying charges and potential court injunctions.

The provincial government also made an amendment to the Planning Act to add CAs to subsection 1 (2) of the Planning Act. This amendment makes CAs part of the Province’s one window planning approach. This means that a CA can not, as a public body under that Act, appeal a decision to LPAT or become a party to an appeal before LPAT. Municipalities and the Province can continue to work with CAs and rely on their advice and support where they want it during an LPAT appeal.

A number of additional amendments were made through the Standing Committee process, including a new section added to Schedule 6 that requires a CA to issue a permit when the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing issues Ministers Zoning Orders (MZO). Additional amendments regarding Board governance were made to ensure that at least 70% of CA appointees are selected from among the members of a municipal council as well as other amendments regarding stop work orders. Furthermore, amendments allow CAs to appeal or be party to an appeal as a public body, under certain provisions of the Planning Act in the context of prescribed natural hazards matters.

MECP will be posting additional regulatory proposals for public feedback in 2021 on a series of regulations and policies to further support the goals of the review of CAs. The Province is creating a working group to help implement changes to CAs. Hassaan Basit, President and CEO of Conservation Halton will chair the new group which will provide input on the development of proposed regulations under the Conservation Authorities Act, and on how CAs are governed.