The Ontario government has laid out a four-year plan to address the province’s housing crisis, including a slate of changes to municipal planning rules.
The Ontario government has laid out a four-year plan to address the province’s housing crisis, including a slate of changes to municipal planning rules that Premier Doug Ford’s government says are required to get more homes built faster and slow galloping house prices.
The province says it wants time to get municipalities onside with some those proposals such as the elimination of exclusionary zoning that would add density to established city neighbourhoods and it wants better data to base decisions on what to build and where, said a government source.that it says will help speed up home construction by expediting development approvals.
A government source said the province needs more time to work with municipalities because previously they have refused to implement provincially directed changes such as the community benefits framework that speaks to how developers contribute to the communities in which they are building. Some municipalities have also obstructed directives such as those aimed at building secondary units on single-family lots by placing so many conditions on their construction that they aren’t practical.