There is an informative Staff report on Council agenda 2/6 reviewing particularly relevant changes to the Planning Act under Bill 73 which came into full force July 1, 2016.  For those who have become involved with development applications some of the changes will be of interest.  I will be asking for clarification on how we will go about determining whether King wants to establish a Planning Advisory Committee; upper tier municipalities are required to do so under Bill 73 whereas for lower tier it is an option.  Intent of these committees of which the composition includes at least one citizen is to facilitate greater collaboration between Council and the public on planning matters.  I am interested to hear from you if you think such a committee would be valuable.  

As reviewed in the report Bill 73 does include some important changes to OMB.  Reading about them reminds me that about the review of the OMB itself which is in process.  I do hope that there are some meaningful changes made but we will have to wait.