The Act does, however, provide Municipalities the ability through Council resolution, to allow minor variance applications to proceed on a case-by-case basis, by resolution to permit a certain class of minor variance applications or, by resolution to permit all minor variance applications to proceed within the 2-year time frame (Section 45 (1.4) of the Planning Act).

On July 1, 2016, Bill 73 came into effect and implemented a number of legislative changes to the Planning Act. As part of Bill 73, Section 45 of the Planning Act was amended (45 (1.3)) by putting in place a two-year moratorium for minor variance applications within two years of the date of passing of a zoning by-law amendment.

During the two-year period following the adoption of a new official plan or the replacement of a municipality's zoning by-laws, applications for amendment are permitted only with council approval. The council may permit a specific request, a class of requests or requests generally. The intent of the changes to the Planning Act were to give greater control to Municipalities to prevent the reversal of zoning provisions that council determined to be important through the by-law amendment processes.

It was also recognized that there may be instances where material changes to development proposals are necessary and that minor relief from regulations are required to permit the development. To address this, provisions were further included in the Planning Act (45 (1.4)) to allow, by Council resolution, the opportunity to submit an application for a Minor Variance. This enables the municipality to determine what best constitutes a technical or housekeeping minor variance.

Risk Analysis:

N/A

Financial Matters :

Consultations :

Staff from Planning and Legal were consulted in the writing of this report.

Conclusion :

Section 45(1.3) is intended to operate to provide additional oversight to developments requesting zoning by-law amendments to protect the decisions enacted by council from being reversed through a minor variance. It should be noted that the merits of minor variances are still deliberated by the Committee of Adjustment using the established four part test and that public notice to neighbouring properties would be provided should the application be permitted to be made. The Planning Act provision does not intend to override the authority of any Committee of Adjustments and their powers to deliberate the merits of a minor variance applications.