Bruce County’s Planning and Development Committee was able to hear updates on Bill 97, which was tabled in the provincial legislature last month.
The Bill outlines changes to the Planning Act, as well as previous pieces of legislation that address housing and development in the province.
Bill 97 also builds off of Bill 23, The More Homes Built Faster Act, in order to allow for the construction of 1.5 million new homes to be built in Ontario by 2031.
The Bill was tabled by Steve Clark, who is the provincial Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing.
The first reading of the bill was on April 6th.
The province categorized the proposed policies under four areas: generating housing supply, making land available for development, providing infrastructure to support development, and balancing housing with other resource and land use needs.
That includes land use for employment needs, according to Rob Rappolt, who is a Team Lead & Senior Planner at WSP.
“There may be implications on long-term supply of employment plans as contemplated through local Official Plans and Land Use Planning frameworks,” says Rappolt. “And in this regard, there would be a heightened need to ensure good protection of employment lands, to ensure that the ability for local municipalities to absorb future economic and employment growth is retained and protected for the long term.”
In the Bill, as of January 1st, 2023, additional residential units being added to a parcel of land cannot exceed 3, and must be dictated by water and septic restrictions.
The new criteria say that any new lot:
I. Is located outside of a specialty crop area
II. Complies with minimum distance separation formulae
III. Will be limited to the minimum size needed to accommodate the use while still ensuring appropriate sewage and water services
IV. Has existing access on a public road while appropriate frontage for ingress and egress, and
V. Is adjacent to existing non-agricultural land uses or consists primarily of lower-priority agricultural land
Claire Dodds, the Director of Planning and Development also shared that staff will be consulting with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing regarding cultural and archeological resources, saying that “We’re making some very concrete efforts in terms of transparency around our natural heritage resources, with being able to add some additional mapping into our Official Plan.”
While county councillors voiced their support for addressing the need for more housing, but they also shared their concerns about building on agricultural land.
The new policy is expected to go into effect in the Fall of 2023.