After an ask from the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM), Grey County will be examining its planning approval process.
“We know that Simcoe County has delegated approvals for plans to subdivisions and condominiums to the majority of their local municipalities. And so we've already reached out to them just to get some preliminary information,” said Randy Scherzer, director of planning and development for Grey County.
Earlier this month, TBM council passed a motion that directed staff to draft a memorandum of understanding for the county to provide TBM with approval authority on subdivisions and condominium planning applications.
Subdivision and condo approval is currently given by Grey County, with the municipality then managing zoning bylaw amendments.
“It becomes a situation where we have our council deliberating, we have the county council deliberating, we have two different planning staff working on essentially the same file. And, that is certainly not efficient,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever.
The issue was brought forward for discussion at a county committee of the whole meeting held last week.
“I'm wondering if this is an opportunity to really look at planning at the lower tier and the upper tier, and through communication and collaboration, look for areas where there may be some duplications or there may be some efficiencies that might be found,” said Barb Clumpus, mayor of the municipality of Meaford.
Currently, Owen Sound is the only lower-tier municipality in Grey County that manages its own planning applications and approvals.
“Simcoe County has delegated approvals in a phased approach over the past 20 years,” said Scherzer. “Staff there noted that any potential staff time savings resulting from delegated approvals have allowed them to focus their time on strategic and long-term planning projects and initiatives that benefit the county as a whole.”
County staff will be exploring various planning models and will be providing a staff report to council with detailed background information and possible options to move forward.
