{"id":17271,"date":"2017-05-17T11:31:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17271"},"modified":"2017-05-24T15:57:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T19:57:10","slug":"leaders-welcome-proposed-replacement-of-omb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/leaders-welcome-proposed-replacement-of-omb\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders welcome proposed replacement of OMB"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Province of Ontario is moving to replace the Ontario Municipal Board with a Planning Appeal Tribunal which could, if passed, give greater weight to local planning decisions.
\nReforms were announced Tuesday morning by Bill Mauro, Minister of Municipal Affairs, who said changes were in the best interests of all.
\n\u201cWe want to ensure the land use planning system is working effectively for everyone,\u201d said Mauro. \u201cOur proposals would empower communities and municipalities to better determine how their neighbourhoods develop in the future.\u201d
\nThat is exactly the kind of change municipalities like Aurora have been striving for.
\nLocally, reform was spearheaded by Councillors Tom Mrakas and Michael Thompson whose efforts received the weight of Council. Their charge gained momentum and ultimately led to a summit in Markham last year which brought together municipalities from across Ontario to call for action.
\nTuesday\u2019s announcement was also hailed by local leaders as a step in the right direction.
\n\u201cI think that the legislation is moving in the right direction, which is to be more mindful of local conditions, something the GTA mayors and chairs have been asking for [for] close to 20 years,\u201d said Mayor Geoff Dawe on Tuesday. \u201cThe Legislation is due to be tabled prior to the summer recess and the tentative timeline is to see it enacted in the spring of 2018. Of course, the challenge will be in the details found in the regulations, and there will be a lot of discussion about this over the next few months, especially the transition policies.\u201d
\nIndeed, nothing is a done deal yet and there are still many details to be hammered out. However, the Province says the new tribunal \u201cwould be mandated to give greater weight to the decisions of local communities, while ensuring that development and growth occurs in a way that is good for Ontario and its future.\u201d
\n\u201cThis would be achieved by eliminating lengthy and costly \u2018de novo\u2019 hearings for the majority of planning appeals,\u201d said the Ministry in a statement. \u201cThe term \u2018de novo\u2019 has been used to describe how the Ontario Municipal Board deals with appeals of municipal land use planning decisions, by considering the same issue that was before the municipality as though no previous decision had been made.
\n\u201cOntario would also make planning appeals more accessible to the public by creating the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre, a new agency that would provide free information and support, which may include representation at the tribunal for citizens who want to participate in the appeal process.\u201d
\nCouncillor Thompson says the creation of a Local Planning Appeal Support Centre is a \u201csignificant addition\u201d for residents.
\n\u201cMany people have argued that under the current system (OMB) developers had an unfair advantage because most residents, neighbourhood associations and\/or ratepayers groups didn\u2019t have the resources to challenge a large scale development,\u201d he said. \u201cThis change along with the other reforms put forward today would seem to have closed the gap considerably and given Ontarians access to faster, fairer and more affordable hearings.\u201d
\nEager to see further details over the reform, he added that the details thus far are a \u201cbig win\u201d for municipalities.
\n\u201cBased on today\u2019s announcement it would seem that the province was listening and that we will now have a much stronger voice in the planning and development of our community,\u201d he said.
\nCouncillor Tom Mrakas also singled out the Local Planning Appeal supports as a big win, calling it the \u201cmost extraordinary and personally gratifying change\u201d for him as Chair of the Municipal Summit on OMB Reform.
\n\u201cThis is exactly what we – at the Summit on OMB Reform \u2013 recommended,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas. \u201cOur grassroots gathering of over 100 elected officials, held almost one year ago to the day, recommended that the scope of powers of the OMB be limited. Our collaborative efforts have resulted in the return of authority to local municipalities to determine how they want to see their communities grow within the context of Provincial Policy; that our Official Plans will actually mean something now. This is truly wonderful news\u201d
\nIf passed, the Legislation would exempt a broader range of decisions from appeal, including those pertaining to new official plans, major official plan updates and issues that support growth \u201cin major transit areas.\u201d It will also establish mandatory case conferences for complex hearings to encourage early settlements.
\nMPP Chris Ballard says he is also looking forward to see the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre come to fruition.
\n\u201cThe first thing citizens unfortunately feel they have to do when an application is put forward is to lawyer up and to spend all sorts of money on lawyers and planners,\u201d he said, \u201cand I am really hoping the local planning appeal support centre is going to be able to give advice to our citizens before and during a hearing process so people feel more comfortable and the whole process is more transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Province of Ontario is moving to replace the Ontario Municipal Board with a Planning Appeal Tribunal which could, if passed, give greater weight to local planning decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4uz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 13:48:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}