A Letter from Adam Vaughan - OMB REFORM BEGINS NOW!

June 5, 2008

OPEN LETTER TO ALL WARD 20 RESIDENTS:

OMB REFORM BEGINS NOW!

A significant step was taken today, in the fight to reform, and in fact, eliminate part of the Ontario Municipal Board’s (OMB) functions. At the Planning and Growth Management Committee this morning, City Councillors approved the motion attached below.

This decision starts a process that will eliminate the Ontario Municipal Board as an as appeal body for Committee of Adjustment (CoA) decisions. As your Ward Councillor and as member of the City’s Planning and Growth Management Committee, I have been working my colleague Councillor Peter Milczyn on this idea and I was proud to support the motion which passed unanimously this morning.

Currently, significant development applications that fall just short of requiring an Official Plan Amendment, a formal re-zoning or are deemed to involve only minor amounts of additional density and/or changes to an approved or existing property or design are dealt with by the CoA.

In theory, the CoA was set up to deal with only minor variances such as; extensions to buildings (enlarged porches, rear additions, or the construction of new basement apartments, etc.). In practice, this work still forms the bulk of the cases heard by the CoA. In recent years however, this has begun to change, especially in Ward 20.

Residents now see large projects that have gone through an extensive planning process and careful debate (and occasionally, have even been settled by the OMB) resurface at the CoA with months of a settlement.

The project is restructured, the community is often ambushed, the political and planning process are undermined, and less informed, less regulated and less challenged developments are re-configured and approved in lightening speed.

Today at the Planning and Growth Management Committee, we set in motion a process to put an end to this form of backdoor re-zoning by instructing staff to take advantage of the new powers afforded council in the City of Toronto Act, and to begin work in creating a made-in-Toronto appeal process that will eliminate the OMB as an appeal route for applicants unhappy with the CoA decisions.

CoA decisions would still be open to appeal, but the body that would have carriage of the issue would be appointed by City Council and would operate within guidelines and rules set by Council. This could include instructions to adhere to heritage guidelines, render judgments consistent with Avenue studies and Part II plans. The new appeal body could also be required to interpret all non-planning city by-laws much more literally as the impact of a development is considered and approved.

This is a significant initiative. It heralds and hopefully begins the process of making Toronto’s planning process much more accountable, community-based and sensitive to local conditions and more importantly a more neighbourhood-based process.

There is still a lot of work ahead and as a member of the Planning and Growth Management Committee, I will do all I can to make sure that the concerns of resident groups are front and centre in how the proposal evolves. As it stands now, a working group of committee members and staff will jointly develop a proposal to bring to the community in the fall. At that time, public consultations, financial impacts and responses from all stakeholders and City diviisons will kick-off a public process to bring this idea to life and a introduce a new approach to planning approvals to City Hall.

This initiative won’t solve all of the problems we have with the OMB or the CoA, but it is a serious start and may be the first step in Toronto becoming a self governing city when it comes to planning.

Yours truly,
Adam Vaughan
City Councillor
Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina



MOTION PGM 16.11

Background

The new City of Toronto Act ushered in expanded powers and responsibilities for municipal government in Toronto. One of the significant new powers which were given to the City is the ability to establish our own Appeal Panel for Minor Variance and Consent applications heard by the Committee of Adjustment.

Section 115 of the Act gives the City the ability to establish its own Appeal Panel and appoint members of the Panel according to its own criteria. The only restrictions the Act imposes are that members of the Appeal Panel may not be Members of Council, Committee of Adjustment members, or City staff.

Recommendations:

1. A Councillor-Staff Working Group is struck to develop the structure for an Appeal Panel to hear appeals of Committee of Adjustment decisions on Minor Variance and Consent Applications.

2. The Working Group should consider;- the staff and financial resource requirements for the establishment of such an Appeal Panel- the fee structure for Appeals- the structure and size of the Appeal Panel- qualifications and criteria for appointment of members to the new Appeal Panel

3. The Councillor-Staff Working Group should report to the Planning & Growth Committee by October 2008. The Executive Committee and Budget Committee should be kept apprised of the work of the Working Group so as to be able to plan for the new Appeal Panel’s implementation.

The City of Toronto, residents and generations of municipal politicians have lamented the fact that the Ontario Municipal Board has jurisdiction over appeals of local Planning matters. The Government of the Province of Ontario has offered the City the ability to take over responsibility for a fair, rule-of-law based Appeal Panel for hearing appeals of decisions of the Committee of Adjustment.

It is important that the City of Toronto grasp this opportunity to demonstrate its ability to more fully take control of the Planning process at the municipal level. A successful implementation of this measure would strengthen the City’s calls for wresting more control over the Planning process away from the Ontario Municipal Board.

The new City of Toronto Act ushered in expanded powers and responsibilities for municipal government in Toronto. One of the significant new powers which were given to the City is the ability to establish our own Appeal Panel for Minor Variance and Consent applications heard by the Committee of Adjustment.

Section 115 of the Act gives the City the ability to establish its own Appeal Panel and appoint members of the Panel according to its own criteria. The only restrictions the Act imposes are that members of the Appeal Panel may not be Members of Council, Committee of Adjustment members, or City staff.