Province to scrap OMB for less powerful tribunal

Ontario is planning to scrap the independent tribunal that adjudicates planning and development disputes and set up a new one that will give municipalities more power.

Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Mauro announced Tuesday that the Ontario Municipal Board will be replaced by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal with legislation that will be introduced later this month.

“If our reforms pass, there would be fewer and shorter hearings and a more efficient decision-making process, and there would be more deference to local land-use planning decisions,” Mauro said.

The major reforms were welcomed by local politicians but met with a warning from the development industry that they will hinder the province’s plans to build up Ontario cities by empowering the NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) tendencies of communities.

The Ontario Municipal Board is a tribunal that hears appeals from local residents and developers when they object to municipal decisions on planning and development matters, including issues relating to zoning bylaws, new developments and ward boundaries.

The new Local Planning Appeal Tribunal will have less power to overturn local government decisions.

Under the new process, the tribunal will decide if a municipality has followed its official plans in the disputed decision. If it has failed to do so, the issue will be sent back to the municipality for reconsideration. Only if the municipality fails to come to a decision or fails to follow the planning process a second time would a full hearing be held, with the tribunal making a final decision.

It will mean fewer municipal decisions can be overturned than under the current process, in which each dispute is treated as if it were new, disregarding the decision the local government has made.

The status quo has long been criticized as tilted in favour of developers, who’ve been able to appeal a municipality’s decision and ultimately build something more profitable, such as a condo building with more units than the local council called for in its official plan.