HomeMy WebLinkAbout74-67REPORT NO.11
OFFICIAL PLAN AMENDKENT PROCEDURES
4 61
On April 23 the Regional Clerk wrote to the Town of Newcastle
attaching a copy of Staff Report #�l containing Official Plan
Amendment Procedures as approved by Regional Council. The letter
also established an interim fee of $300 payable to the Region for
the processing of each Official Plan Amendment. This letter was
referred by Council to the PAC. Under the provisions of Bill 162
any official plan in effect in the Region of Durham became an
official plan of the Durham Planning Area as of January lst. There-
fore, any application to amend an existing Official Plan must be
made to Regional Council through its Clerk, who refers it to,
Regional Council, Local Council, the Regional Planning and Develop-
ment Committee, Regional Staff and Local Staff. The Regional.
Planning and Development Committee decide whether the matter is prim-
arily of Regional or Local significance. In the case of a matter
primarily of Regional importance the Regional will do the primary
processing of the amendment and in the case of an amendment primarily
of local importance the local council will be asked to do the major
processing. When the processing of any application is completed,
in all cases the final report goes to both Regional and Local plann-
ing committees and councils for their approval.
Without going into the details of the procedure as outlined in
Schedule "A" of the staff report I would recommend that Council
continued...........
2 REPORT N0,11
submit to the Region the following comments thereon:
1. Dilpli at'on
While one of the stated objectives in the staff report is the
avoidance of duplication of effort, the actual procedure involves
a very great deal of duplication can the part of Regional and
Local Staff. It is recommended that when it has been decided
whether the Region or the Local Municipalit are to process the
amendment, all processing should be carried out by the party
responsible, with the other party receiving periodic progress
reports as necessary. There is no reason why the same proposal
should be processed by both Local and Regional staffs unless the
Region and the Local municipalities lack confidence in the ability
of each other's staffs to do a thorough professional job.
We must assume that this is not the case. If each level of
government insists on re- investigating everything which the
other level has done, the whole system of government which we
have will break down and the costs will be enormous.
2. Pa men -to f fees
The Regional Council is presently the body which receives the
fees for processing Official Plan Amendments, There is no pro-
vision for the local municipality to receive any fee when it is
asked to undertake the primary processing of the amendment.
Where the rimary re a2onsibilit. for urocessin an amendment
is allocated to the local liiLj U ty the local m cibality
continued .°.......
3 REPORT NO.11
houl receive the fee aLd for such process".
3. Ad itlonal Char es
In many cases
the 4300
fee paid for an O,P. Amendment
applica-
tion falls far
short of
the actual cost of processing
the
Ipplie,,tion whether
by
staff or consultants. In such
case,
and where the
alplication is being oxocessed by the Townes the
Town reserves
the ri ht
to collect any additional fees
re uired
to cover the
t ro
essin.
Respectfully submitted,
George F. Howden,
Planning Director.