The Path Through Site Plan Control Process
Issues & Expectations
Municipalities in Ontario are empowered to exercise great power on approval of site plan applications. The main intent of the process is to insure technical conformance of applications with respect to safety, efficiency and aesthetics of building layout, massing, access, landscaping and parking. The power comes from section 41 of the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, which formulates the local municipalities’ official plans and site plan control by-laws, each in their own way. As a result, we see variations in implementation of the Act from one municipality in Ontario to another, which brings about the concerns on timing and cost of the process. Although the intent of the process is to bring efficiency to the built environment, the process itself in general is inefficient.
Recently Ontario Association of Architect sponsored a study to identify the issues with the process, and the followings are some of the findings from the report prepared by Bousfields and Altus in consultation with participating members of OAA:
- Over 35% of applications took over 9 months to obtain approval
- Approximately 50% of all applications required 3 or more resubmissions before approval
- For 73% of applications that went to a pre-application consultation meeting, the respondents felt that the meeting either accelerated the process or had no impact on the timing
- For 65% of applications that went to a review committee meeting, the respondents felt that the meeting delayed the timing
- The top three reasons impacting the timing of site plan approval were: circulation time of submission between departments; slow/lack of response from municipal staff; conflicting comments from different departments and agencies
- The top three comments most that respondents frequently received from municipalities were related to: grading and servicing; landscaping; and off-street vehicular loading and parking
- The respondents indicated that for 17% of applications, the process positively impacted the integrity of the building design, 55% of applications were not impacted, and 28% of applications were negatively impacted
- The top 5 categories of concern with the site plan approval process included: amount of time required; lack of municipal expertise; subjectivity; lack of coordination; and unnecessary submission requirements
- No single Ontario municipality stood out as being overwhelmingly positive in terms of their site plan approval process
- The top three aspects contributing to a positive site plan approval experience included: good coordination between reviewing departments; clarity regarding submission requirements; and clarity regarding what developments require site plan approval
- The top 5 ideas for improvement included: improve leadership and coordination; impose time frames on process; clarify requirements; standardize process; and make departments and reviewers more accountable
In terms of economic impact of the existing issues, the report by Bousfields and Altus highlights the followings:
- Applicants – additional taxes on vacant land, carrying costs of financing, and inflation on construction costs (labour and wages)
- For a 100-unit condominium apartment building, each additional month would cost the applicant $193,000, or roughly $1,930 per unit per month, which will likely get passed on to new home buyers
- For a 50,000 square foot office building, each additional month would cost the applicant roughly $113,000 or roughly $2.25 per square foot per month which will likely get passed on to the eventual tenants of new office space
- Municipalities and Existing Communities – delayed tax revenue from newly developed building and lost spending by residents on retail shops, restaurants and service providers in a community:
- For a 100-unit condominium apartment building, the time spent in site plan review process costs the municipality and existing community a combined $159,900 to $241,600 per month
- For a 50,000 square foot office building, the time spent in site plan review costs the municipality between $4,100 and $16,000 per month or roughly between $0.08 and 0.32 per square foot, which will likely get passed to the eventual tenants of the new office space and delay the arrival of 250 new job opportunities
- End Users – additional development charges can get passed on to buyers, lost equity for new home buyers by not beginning to pay a mortgage sooner, and increased rent costs from persons who had been renting and will have to rent for a longer period of time
- For a 100-unit condominium apartment building, the time spent in the site plan review process would cost the end-users a combined $44,000 per month, or roughly $443 per unit per month
- For a 50,000 square foot office building, the time spent in the site plan review process would cost end-users (office tenants) a combined $7,000 per month, or roughly $0.14 per square foot per month
The research report suggests some methods for making the process more efficient, but till any upcoming improvements in the process, Clients that are going through the process should expect encountering some of the above issues.