On the June 27^th Council agenda item there is a report recommending a new bylaw to cover the topic of Site Plan Control in King Township. As reviewed in the report creation of this new bylaw is necessitated to  comply with Bill 109 “more homes for everyone.”  There has been much discussion as to whether this Act will indeed lead to homes being built more quickly and whether these homes will be “affordable.” The Bylaw being reviewed on June 27 is related to these objectives as the Province believes that the process for approving development applications will be accelerated by Councils delegating approval authority to their planning staff. As I am personally not in full agreement with the conclusions behind Bill 109 I am pleased to see  the provisions that our staff have proposed to provide transparency and to allow opinions of Council members or public to be heard.  But as clearly stated the decision authority is the Planning Staff. As reviewed in the report not all development applications are subject to site plan review but with this Bylaw there are additional areas subject to it.

To elaborate on what I said above about provisions being proposed to assure transparency and to provide opportunity to Council and public to state concerns.  In the report a process is proposed whereby Council will be made aware of site plan applications submitted and when one is proceeding to the designated approver for a decision.  Furthermore, a Council member may request that a report to Council be made for an application deemed contentious, such as one which may come for 13760 Keele Street from the Augustinian Fathers.  The fact that site plan decisions are not subject to an appeal is not changed.

Its somewhat ironic that on the agenda where Bill 109 is cited which mandates approval authority being delegated to Planning to speed up the building of more homes more quickly there is Staff report (#7.5) a request to extend the lapsing provisions, and water  and sanitary servicing reservation/allocation for 3 of the developments in the northeast King City development project.  Specifically they have asked for one year extension to September 23, 2023.  September 23,2022 is 3 years after they received draft plan approval.

As always if you would like to register to make a deputation or  provide comment e-mail comments please do so by noon on Monday 27 at clerks@king.ca