TORONTO — The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) is applauding the City of Vaughan for taking a positive step to facilitate housing supply and affordability in the municipality.
A motion put forward by Mayor Steven Del Duca aims to implement a new “Three Strikes and You’re In” model for site plan approval.
According to BILD, this move supports the city’s pledge to enable the construction of 42,000 new homes by 2032.
“When it comes to residential and commercial development, time is literally money,” said Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of BILD, in a statement. “We know from BILD’s 2024 Municipal
Benchmarking Study that each month of delay in planning approval in the GTA adds between $2,673 per unit per month to $5,576 per unit per month, depending on housing type and location.
With site plan approvals in the GTA averaging 23 months this adds up quickly, impacting housing affordability and slowing additional supply.”
The new process will be effective in June and will limit the city’s comments on site plan applications to three sets of comments (if necessary).
“This will limit the time delays and bureaucratic back and forth that has come to characterize site plan application processes in many GTA municipalities,” BILD states.
Following the third set of comments by the city, applicants with outstanding issues will be given the option of a face-to-face “redline” meeting with staff to resolve any of these issues, with the goal of leaving that meeting with an issued site plan approval.
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