Joint Planning and Housing and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa is committed to public participation in the planning and development process; and WHEREAS the City initiated in 2014 a development application pre-application consultation program with community associations, with the objective to increase transparency to the City’s development review process, and to allow for early input by the community into the development proposal; and WHEREAS any public participant from the 6 participating Wards must attend training and sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement acknowledging their understanding of confidentiality requirement under the Planning Act; and WHEREAS the Province’s Bill 109 introduced tight timelines for development applications to be considered during Official Review; and WHEREAS Bill 109 Implementation Phase 2 report introduces a multi-phased pre-consultation process for development applications, which introduces three phases to allow the applicant to discuss their idea to obtain preliminary feedback, present their refined idea and any draft studies for comment, and finally, submit their final proposal for the study review to ensure the studies are complete, consistent with one another, and contain enough information to allow a proper application processing during the provincially timed review; and WHEREAS there is opportunity to build upon the existing pre-consultation engagement with community associations in the context of Bill 109’s multi-phased pre-consultation process; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Staf

WHEREAS report ACS2023-PRE-GEN-0004 recommends amendments to the Pre-Consultation By-law 2009-320 to introduce a Multi-tiered Pre-Consultation Process; and WHEREAS Pre-Consultation is a process that takes place between applicants and City staff, with other participants signing non-disclosure agreements given the commercial confidentiality of development projects in early stages; and WHEREAS members of Council may have an interest in participating in the Pre-Consultation Process early on for development application files; and WHEREAS Site Plan Control approval authority rests with staff by appointment, not delegation, which limits the role of elected officials; and WHEREAS approval authority on Zoning By-law Amendments remains with Council, which may permit involvement of elected officials in the pre-consultation process; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to assess the feasibility of Councillor participation in Pre-Consultation for Zoning By-law Amendment applications and report back to Council in Q4 2023 with their findings.

WHEREAS the Bill 109 Implementation Phase 2 report introduces a multi-phased pre-consultation process for development applications, which introduces three phases to allow the applicant to discuss their idea to obtain preliminary feedback, present their refined idea and any draft studies for comment, and finally, submit their final proposal for the study review to ensure the studies are complete, consistent with one another, and contain enough information to allow a proper application processing during the provincially timed review; and WHEREAS a dispute resolution process for issues that may arise during the pre-consultation process was not identified in the report; and WHEREAS it is in the interest of applicants and the City to ensure that development application files move smoothly through the new pre-consultation process in a timely manner, with the shared objective to facilitate the building of homes to solve the housing crisis; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Planning Services Staff be directed to: Develop a dispute resolution procedure for the pre-consultation process and report back to Council via Memo by the end of Q3 2023 on the process and implementation timeline; and Report on the use of the dispute resolution process be included as part of the monitoring report, as per Recommendation 9.

WHEREAS ARAC was created to ensure that matters pertaining to rural Ottawa, including planning matters, are considered from a rural perspective, with a full appreciation of rural issues and impact; and WHEREAS Bill 109 will impose stricter timelines related to zoning by-law amendments and site plan control applications; and WHEREAS Bill 109 Implementation Phase 2 (ACS2023-PRE-GEN-0004) outlines staff requests for amendments to Council and committee governance processes, Terms of Reference, and the Procedure by-law in order to adhere to the provincial timelines; and WHEREAS item 3.1 recommendation 8a asks the joint Agriculture and Rural Affairs (ARAC) and Planning and Housing Committee (PHC) to schedule Council and PHC bi-weekly on alternating Wednesdays in order to meet provincial timelines; and WHEREAS Recommendation 8.d. asks the joint committee to enable all zoning matters in the City to have the ability to be considered at the PHC, allowing rural zoning files to be considered there if there are time pressures related to rural files that are unable to be considered at a regularly scheduled ARAC meeting; and WHEREAS it is integral that Council aims to refer the appropriate items to their respective committee whenever possible to ensure that they are considered in their appropriate jurisdiction; and WHEREAS ARAC is a proportionately smaller committee in comparison to other committees and there is a requirement of 3 members to have a quorum meaning it will ordinarily not be d

WHEREAS Legal Services completes a key step in the processing of development applications, including but not limited to reviewing decision report recommendations, reviewing zoning plans, reviewing site plan control conditions, writing the development agreements, and preparing for and attending Ontario Land Tribunal hearings; and WHEREAS ensuring that all parts of the development approval process are appropriately supported to enable the building of homes faster, as per the City’s Housing Pledge and in accordance with provincial timelines; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Legal Services undertake a review of their staff complement required to deliver on their responsibilities regarding planning applications and, should additional resources be identified as required, that: the pressures be put forward during the 2024 Budget process; and the Legal portion of Planning Services fee be adjusted accordingly.