Staff memo presents options for expediting development approvals

While some efforts to speed up development approvals are moving along with related town work, others are being slow played.

A staff memo presented at the January 27 council meeting offered several potential options for councillors to consider that may speed up development approvals. However, councillors voted to simply receive the memo for information, with Councillor Tom Lewis saying he has more questions for staff that he wants to ask offline before any potential decisions are made.

“Then certainly we can bring that conversation back with anything further,” he said.

Last June council asked staff to look at ways to speed up approvals as part of an overall goal to get development projects going.

“Although the development approval process itself may be expedited, no option known to staff currently exists that would mandate construction to proceed in a timely manner after planning approvals are granted,” said the staff memo.

The memo offers some familiar options such as delegated authority that gives staff more ability make decisions without council approval, as well as sunset clauses, an option councillors have shown an interest in during meetings in recent months.

Flexible wording and “enabling” policy in zoning bylaws and official plans could also help, the memo suggests. The Town is currently updating its official plan, and once approved, will update the zoning bylaw as well.

The memo also looks at other municipalities for inspiration. Restructuring the site plan approval process could speed things up, the memo said, pointing to a “unique system that results in an average processing timeline of 44 days” that’s being employed by the City of Hamilton.

While considering options for sunset clauses, staff were only able to find one municipality, Aurora, that uses such clauses for zoning bylaw amendments.

“Unlike approvals for site plan control and draft plans of subdivision, there are no explicit clauses in the Planning Act that permit or restrict the use of sunset clauses in the zoning bylaw,” the memo said, recommending a review of legal feasibility and implications should council decide to consider this as an option.

The memo also considers the implementation of technology to speed up approvals. Online application portals are an option, and the memo said some municipalities are experimenting with artificial intelligence and other automated systems that consider zoning compliance.

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