Successive provincial governments of all political stripes have failed to have due regard for municipal authority in local land use planning decisions. As a result, rather than approving much needed housing units, municipalities instead have spent decades mired in the red tape of costly, time consuming appeals hearings spending millions of taxpayer dollars defending Council decisions to uphold provincially approved Official Plans.
With delay upon delay, nothing gets built and the hope of developing the “missing middle” of housing looks at this stage, to be merely a pipe dream.
We are witnessing a crisis in attainable housing; a crisis fueled in part by a land use planning appeals process that supplants the rights of local municipalities to uphold their own provincially approved Official Plans with the power of an unelected, unaccountable third party – the OLT – to determine “good planning outcomes” for our communities.
If municipalities had the authority to enforce their provincially approved Official Plans, then thousands of units of housing could be built in conformity with the Official Plans in York Region alone without any further delay.
To address the very real need for a diversity of attainable housing in communities across our province, we need to eliminate one of the key barriers to its realization – the Ontario Land Tribunal.
2 Responses
This does not explain the missing middle. The missing middle is infilling, duplexes, 4-plexes and low-rise rentals which are not able to be built due to lack of zoning for this type of activity. No more building on land with no existing infrastructure. Adding infrastructure to virgin land adds to the cost of housing and creates urban sprawl.
Thanks for your comment Lyne, I would suggest you read the zoning and our Official Plan as it allows for everything you just mentioned. That is not what developers are building. Here is the link to our OP if you would like to see for yourself. https://www.aurora.ca/en/your-government/resources/operating-budget/September-2021-Official-Plan-Consolidation.pdf