There is growing consensus in the Vancouver and Toronto regions that the primary reason for high and rising housing prices is the unresponsiveness of the existing land-use planning system to rising housing needs. We cannot produce affordable housing without an ample supply of approved, serviced sites in built-up and greenfield areas.

This paper highlights the planning challenges identified in the June final report of the Canada/B.C. Expert Panel on Future Housing Supply and Affordability and its conclusions and recommendations under the thematic category of Creating a Planning Framework that Proactively Encourages Housing.

CUR researchers Frank Clayton and David Amborski comment on these challenges and recommendations from a Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area ("GTHA") lens. They draw on the panel's work to provide recommendations to increase and expedite the GTHA housing supply to improve affordability through reforming the land-use planning process.

Among their recommendations are:

• The Province of Ontario should apply its maximum timelines for municipal decisions on applications for official plan amendments, zoning by-law amendments and subdivision plans to include other stages of the development process, such as site plan and building permit approvals, and to fast-track violation appeals by applicants to the "front of the line" at the Ontario Land Tribunal.
• The Province should ensure municipalities update their zoning by-laws to support and implement their official plans soon after they are updated and require municipalities to pre-zone large areas for residential development in both the built-up and greenfield areas, or implement a development permit system.
• All public participation should occur earlier in the planning process than when re-zoning applications for particular sites are submitted. Uses and densities consistent with the provisions of the official plan for specified areas should be in place through the pre-zoning process or the use of a development permit system.
• The Province's land needs assessment methodology should make an explicit requirement that municipalities include estimates of future replacement demand within the existing housing stock (demolitions less net conversions) and a vacancy allowance in addition to household growth. In addition, an "affordability adjustment" should be part of the calculation of future housing needs to account for past undersupply thus helping to improve future overall housing affordability.

Implementation of these and other recommendations will expedite applications through the approvals process in the GTHA, resulting in more housing coming onto the market more quickly. Overall, housing affordability will improve due to the increased expedited supply of housing.

Read our report here.