City Taking Measures To Accommodate Builders

The Packet & Times

With 45% of surveyed businesses planning to expand, streamlining the site-plan approval process is a priority at city hall.

"We are trying to find efficiencies in the bureaucratic process that will save you time," senior planner Jill Lewis told an audience of more than 40 people Wednesday afternoon at city hall.

Builders and business owners with ideas of how the city can streamline the process which is often necessary before applying for a building permit are welcome to make suggestions before the Jan. 20 deadline. Suggestions should be returned to the planning department on the third floor of the Orillia City Centre.

"We have dissolved the planning advisory committee and that is saving six to eight weeks..." Lewis said.

Another change the city is already moving toward is a pre-consultation process, which is available to renovators and builders at no charge.

The city is also adding an early-stage mandatory meeting between the applicant and the city and/or Orillia Power and the Orillia Fire Department where necessary.

Dan Landry, Orillia's manager of economic development, said each resubmission adds about a month to the process.

The average length of time it takes to get a site-plan approval is three to five months. In some cases, it's as short as six weeks, and in complex cases, it takes much longer, Lewis said.

Andrew Fyfe, an audience member and planning consultant for Morgan Planning and Development Inc., said Orillia is neither the fastest nor slowest at site-plan approvals.

"Toronto is in a league of its own," he said. "I have customers who have had in applications for a year and a half and are saying, 'We're not getting anywhere.'"

On the other hand, small municipalities tend to be the fastest because applicants only have to deal with one or two people and he's seen industrial applications be approved in as little as two months.


Audience member Leon Welch, owner of Nor-Weld Ltd., said, "We need a guidebook for non-developers."

"The rules change all the time, so it has be online on a city website so I'm not left holding a book that's two years old," Welch said.

Since the site-plan approval process was implemented in Orillia in 1999, it has undergone several changes with new legislation being passed, including the Lake Simcoe Protection Act and the new official plan.

Ian Sugden, director of planning and development, said other municipalities have such booklets and he could borrow one and customize it for Orillia.

Fyfe said he would like to see the city move to using a municipal co-ordinator who would take each applicant through the entire process. He would also like the see the site-plan process "knit together" with the building permit process.

Sugden said the city cannot get the building permit going before the site plan is complete. However, "we can get you in a position where you are ready the day you get your site plan approval."

Fyfe was pleased with the efforts the city is making and said it eliminates the adversarial nature of discussions.

"Everybody around the table is working for the solution."

Renovations that increase the building's footprint less than 15% don't need site-plan approval.