The proposal said the government wants a “streamlined and simplified policy direction that enables municipalities to expand their settlement area boundaries in a coordinated manner with infrastructure planning, in response to changing circumstances, local contexts and market demand to maintain and unlock a sufficient supply of land for housing and future growth.”
It said “the intended outcome of this review is to determine the best approach that would enable municipalities to accelerate the development of housing and increase housing supply (including rural housing), through a more streamlined, province-wide land use planning policy framework.”
That apparently means the province will be able to over-ride municipal and regional governments.
More specifically, if local planning clashes with the province’s new housing initiatives called “A Place to Grow”, the proposal said the housing policy will prevail.
Under a heading for agriculture, it said its plans are “policy direction that provides continued protection of prime agricultural areas and promotes Ontario’s Agricultural System, while creating increased flexibility to enable more residential development in rural areas that minimizes negative impacts to farmland and farm operations.”
And it said municipalities will be able to approve development on wetlands if there is either compensation or offsets.
