Town staff and councillors have laid out their concerns with a planned standardization of municipal official plans in Ontario.
Chief among the concerns are that provincial changes will “eliminate secondary and site-specific plans, remove development standards from official plans, and severely restrict Fort Erie’s ability to reflect local priorities, community character, and geographic diversity in its planning documents,” a staff report said.
While the province’s Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act (Bill 60) is aimed at encouraging rapid development and construction of infrastructure, something Fort Erie could presumably get behind, the loss of local control is concerning to staff and councillors alike.
Fort Erie will be submitting a formal response outlining their concerns and will be looking for opportunities to bring it up at upcoming events like January’s Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference.
“Local priorities would be totally lost if this goes through,” said Councillor Ann-Marie Noyes at Monday’s council meeting where the report was discussed.
Some of the main points the staff report raises include the standardization of structure and contents for official plans. This could be of unique concern to Fort Erie, where secondary plans and site-specific plans are used to deal with the distinct communities that make up the municipality.
“This approach would remove the flexibility needed to reflect the unique characteristics of Fort Erie’s diverse communities, including Ridgeway, Crystal Beach, and Stevensville,” the report said.
That standardization of plans just doesn’t work in a province as big and varied as Ontario, said Councillor Joan Christensen.
“The province needs to be advised that it risks losing the immense diversity that makes this province so special,” she said.
Other changes the staff report outlines include the proposed cap on the size of the plans to 250 pages, or 65,000 words. This limit leaves little space to address complex issues and could lead to oversimplified plans that leave out important information or rationale.
“For a growing and evolving community like Fort Erie, such restrictions are particularly problematic, as they constrain the Town’s ability to develop a comprehensive and forward-looking planning framework during a pivotal period of transformation,” the report said.
Standardizing land use designation, and specifically reducing the number of designations, also concerns Fort Erie staff and could lead to incompatible land uses next to each other.
Other issues the report identifies is the quick turnaround time–municipalities would be required to update their official plans in as little as two years, or at their next regular five- or 10-year regular update–as well as the push to have plans submitted digitally, a process some municipalities may not be equipped to handle.
More broadly, the report outlines concern with the top-down governance model, a perceived erosion of democratic engagement, a one-size-fits-all approach, and potential legal conflicts.
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About the Author
Luke Edwards
Luke Edwards is a longtime Niagara community journalist who has covered a variety of beats, including business, agriculture, the wine industry and politics. When not writing, there’s a good chance he can be found at a baseball diamond or curling rink.
