The planning manager for Huron County says the impact of the Ford government's Bill 23 will be mixed.
At a recent county council meeting, Denise Van Amersfoort spoke to councillors about the "More Homes Built Faster Act."
Van Amersfoort said there has been some discussion around the fact that the bill will allow for a minimum number of units to be permitted in a given zone and a given area. But she says Huron County has been very supportive of increasing the number of units in established neighbourhoods, so that won't be a significant change in Huron County. She says some of the changes that will have an impact involve the Conservation Authorities. She said they currently have agreements with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority to provide some degree of review in the county and that would no longer to allowed to happen under Bill 23.
“So we certainly also have strong support for the Conservation Authorities to retain their role in reviewing areas that are flood prone, areas where there's erosion, areas like the lake bank, wetlands, places where there's unstable soil. We certainly see a strong role for our Conservation Authority partners," Van Mersfoort explained.
She added their agreements with their Conservation Authority partners have been working very well and they would like to see that continue.
Van Amersfoort says another area of concern is appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal, which would remove third-party appeal for all applications. She notes that this was already done for plans of subdivision in 2019.
“Since that time, if there was a plan of subdivision near someone's home, they would still receive a notification of that. They would certainly still have the opportunity to give comments, but they would not retain the right to appeal it if they were not happy with the decision of council," Van Amersfoort added.
Van Amersfoort said Bill 23 will also limit their use of site plans on smaller builds because site plan approvals would only apply when there are more than ten units, so that could be a significant change. She said that will have more of an impact in urban centres than in rural communities, but it is still a change.
