The province should ensure meaningful resident involvement in land-use decisions, says newly minted Centretown Citizens Community Association president Thomas McVeigh.
At a consultation with the Ontario government Thursday night, Thomas McVeigh and others tackled questions of how to make municipal planning more inclusive for residents.
The workshop is one of seven held across the province between Oct. 24 and Jan. 10 to recommend changes to the Ontario Municipal Board, a quasi-judicial provincial body that settles planning and land-use disputes.
“It is the consultations and the what happens before things end up at the OMB that we need to change,” says McVeigh.
He wants the province to mandate a process that makes it “self evident” that communities were involved.
One way to do this, McVeigh says, is to have developers consult affected locals before huge amounts are spent on planning. He says developers are less inclined to change plans later in the process because it hurts profits.
Another suggestion is for residents who are likely to be affected by a development or zoning change be notified directly, such as by mail, in the early stages of planning.
MPP Linda Jeffrey, Ontario minister of municipal affairs and housing, says legislation reflecting opinions voiced at the workshops will be tabled by Summer 2014.
The OMB currently has 47 open cases from Ottawa. According to the board, it handled more than 1,500 appeals and applications in 2011 and 2012. That year, nine per cent of the cases originated in Ottawa, while 30 per cent came from Toronto.