In late November, the municipality was advised by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing that the Ministerial Zoning Order issued for property located at 1840 Brown Line was being revoked. The decision was triggered by the lack of progress demonstrated on the approvals required to implement the program for which the expedited approval was received.
The original MZO was issued subject property consists of 70 acres with frontage on Brown Line as well as Airport Rd. Specific details of the proposal were limited at the time, but the intention of the property owner was to create approximately 150,000 square feet of industrial space in a total of 3 buildings. No employment forecast or potential industrial tenant or purchaser was introduced who might demonstrate how this development could spur new local employment.
At the time the municipality endorsed the request for an expedited planning process, enthusiasm at the Council level was mixed. The lack of information about the nature of the proposal, its potential and any evidence of field work conducted to date left some Council members believing that the proposal was rushed and lacked the due diligence that would warrant supporting an expedited process.
The province provided a 45-day consultation period which began in August to allow stakeholders to provide feedback on the progress of the project. Based on this consultation, the approval was revoked.
Ministerial Zoning Orders are planning tools that were traditionally used by provincial governments in emergencies or to quickly advance a major initiative or provincial significance. There were 49 MZO’s in the 30 years from 1969 to 2000, but things escalated under the Ford Government in 2019, ramping up significantly in 2022 with legislative changes ostensibly designed to assist the economy recover from the impact of Covid to create jobs and affordable housing. In four years 57 MZO’s received provincial approval, including three in Cavan Monaghan.
The proliferation of these orders eased with legislative changes in the fall of 2023, possibly due to pushback over this perceived encroachment on local building controls. A more transparent process and clearer connections to provincial government priorities now guide the zoning order framework. To qualify for this process, projects are expected to support key provincial objectives such as facilities delivering long term care, hospitals, transit-oriented communities, schools or those supporting housing priorities, economic development or manufacturing projects.
Proponents may also be becoming disillusioned with the process which may not deliver the expected time savings that were anticipated. Zoning orders address the zoning of a site: they do not provide a proponent with approval to start construction and do not exempt them from obtaining other approvals including ones for a plan of subdivision approval, environmental protection, building permits and agency endorsements. Just ask the proponents of the two remaining MZO authorized projects in the municipality. The residential developments at Kawartha Downs and the CSU?/Vargus project at the intersection of County Rd. 10 and Fallis Line east both received approvals in the spring of 2022 but neither shows signs that shovels will be in the ground in the immediate future. KG