Ontario’s housing task force has had it with the “not in my backyard” thinking that has prevented development in the province.
“NIMBYism is a large and constant obstacle to providing housing everywhere,” the task Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force wrote in its report that recommended easing restrictions to help build 1.5 million homes in the next decade.
“Neighbourhood pushback drags out the approval process, pushes up costs and discourages investment in housing. It also keeps out new residents. While building housing is very costly, opposing new housing costs almost nothing. Unfortunately, there is a strong incentive for individual municipal councillors to fall in behind community opposition.”
The report said even a handful of constituents are often enough to derail a project, as local councillors side with the loudest voices. The report said mayors and councillors are “fed up” with public consultations and want to make it easier to build without long hearings a the Ontario Land Tribunal.
“Some have created a new term for NIMBYism: BANANAs – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything, causing one mayor to comment ‘NIMBYism has gone BANANAs,’” “We agree. In a growing, thriving society, that approach is not just bad policy, it is exclusionary and wrong.”
A series of recommendations takes direct aim at the NIMBY process.
Three proposed changes would “require municipalities to limit consultations to the legislated maximum, ensure people can take part digitally, mandate the delegation of technical decisions, prevent abuse of the heritage process and see property owners compensated for financial loss resulting from designation, restore the right of developers to appeal Official Plans and Municipal Comprehensive Reviews, legislate timelines for approvals and enact several other common sense changes that would allow housing to be built more quickly and affordably.
Another set of proposals would “seek to weed out or prevent appeals aimed purely at delaying projects, allow adjudicators to award costs to proponents in more cases, including instances where a municipality has refused an approval to avoid missing a legislated deadline, reduce the time to issue decisions, increase funding, and encourage the Tribunal to prioritize cases that would increase housing supply quickly as it tackles the backlog.”
