[All] Breaking News - New Bill 185 - The End of Smart Growth, Regional Planning, and in Waterloo Potentially Most Local Environmental Protections:

[Kevin Thomason]

Good Evening,

This afternoon Doug Ford's provincial government announced the new Bill 185 and sweeping changes to Provincial Planning Statement (PPS) that may be worse than Bill 23 - particularly for citizens in the Region of Waterloo.

Bill 185 makes significant changes province-wide to urban boundary expansions, planning processes, appeals, and oversight designed to prevent low-density sprawl and instead facilitates farmland, wetland, and natural area destruction for new development. 

The province is also removing Planning Authority from the Region of Waterloo and 7 other GTA Regions and is legalizing corruption by removing important public oversights such as upper-tier planning and the ability to appeal at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) - leaving only local municipal councils to approve all development with few options for appeal.  These lower-tier municipalities are more vulnerable to developer pressures and will now be solely responsible for all growth planning and decisions to approve urban sprawl potentially conferring hundreds of millions of dollars of land value increases to developers with little oversight or regulation.  

These changes are likely to increase ongoing planning chaos and worsen the housing crisis with the wrong types of housing built in the wrong places that maximize developer profits rather than providing much needed sustainable and affordable housing in more desirable locations.

It gets worse in Waterloo Region where most environmental protections such as our Countryside Line, ESPA’s, Environmentally Sensitive Landscapes (ESL’s), Protected Countryside, and Source Water Protections were created by our Region after we were left out of the Greenbelt.  However, with the elimination of Regional Planning Authority the future of all of these essential protections are in question.  

Here’s the overwhelming government press release:

	Cutting Red Tape To Build More Homes:
	https://news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/1004423/cutting-red-tape-to-build-more-homes

Here’s an initial synopsis from Environmental Defence:

	Bill 185 and Proposed Provincial Planning Statement Would Unleash A Wave of “Greenfield Scandals” by Removing Oversight of Approvals:
	https://environmentaldefence.ca/2024/04/10/bill-185-and-proposed-provincial-planning-statement-would-unleash-a-wave-of-greenfield-scandals-by-removing-tribunal-oversight-of-sprawl-approvals/

There are no shortage of extremely troubling changes that are going to require time to figure out but few seem to be in the best interest of citizens - particularly in Waterloo Region.

We will need to mobilize across our communities in the days ahead and once again force Doug Ford to flip-flop on these devastating changes.  All of our groups are going to need to work together on petitions, letters, rallies, and other ways to send a strong message to the provincial government and achieve a better future.

Watch for more updates soon and please share any questions or ideas.

Sincerely,
Kevin Thomason and Mike Marcolongo on behalf of all our community groups.

P.S. The Wilmot industrial mega-site and massive township urban expansion battle continues with new lawn signs available and almost 30,000 signatures on the petition.  Learn more at: https://www.fightforfarmland.com/

-----------------------
Additional Resources:

Bill 185 Full Official Text:
https://www.ola.org/sites/default/files/node-files/bill/document/pdf/2024/2024-04/b185_e.pdf

PPS - Review Of Proposed Policies For A New Provincial Planning Policy Instrument:
https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-8462


Here’s the overview from the Minister:

Ontario is proposing a change to the Planning Act to streamline certain third-party appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal to help communities get quicker planning approvals for housing projects, reduce building costs and in some cases reduce project delays by up to 18 months. Between 2021 and 2023, approximately 67,000 housing units were subject to third-party appeals of official plans and rezoning. These changes will focus third-party appeals for official plans, official plan amendments, zoning by-laws and zoning by-law amendments to key participants (i.e. applicants, public bodies, First Nations and utility providers) to reduce costs and delays and help build homes faster. The proposed changes would also allow proponents to appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal when a municipality refuses an application or does not make a decision on a settlement boundary change outside the Greenbelt Area, ensuring that decisions over boundary changes are subject to an independent and neutral process.


-----------------------------------
Kevin Thomason
Vice-Chair, Grand River Environmental Network
www.gren.ca <http://www.gren.ca/>

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com <mailto:kevinthomason at mac.com>
-------------------------------------





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20240410/0b320184/attachment.html>