(:1) conse;;ation for The Living City

Transcription

1 MA C1._ -\ ~L~E~G~IS~~~T~IV=E~SE~R~~~C~E~S , c-::::"y70: r:. FOR: l-"' Comminae l f~-'~.:..----:---h C'" : - ":J Sorvices...,. ~ounc~l r-?.,.!~.. <s ~~ L-t Cmp:oyee and Business _o ~, ""\ SeN1ces ~~: ~j S--eJVI_ce_s -t-+:f::-iie----h Human Services February 13,u.'7:.u::tA~~a ~ ng~ " (:1) conse;;ation for The Living City SEE DISTRIBUTION LIST Sent via At Authority Meeting #11/13, of Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), held on January 31, 2014, Resolution #A236/13 in regard to The Living City Policies for Planning and Development in the Watersheds of TRCA was approved as follows: WHEREAS Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) staff conducted public and stakeholder consultation on The Living City Policies draft document and have revised the draft document based on stakeholder feedback; AND WHEREAS staff committed to reporting back to the board on the results of public consultation and on revisions to the draft document; THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED THAT TRCA release a revised draft of The Living City Policies draft document for final public and stakeholder consultation as outlined in this report; THAT TRCA 's municipal partners, provincial ministries, the Building Industry and Land Development Association, environmental non-governmental agencies, watershed and waterfront interest groups, neighbouring conservation authorities, and other stakeholders be so advised by the CEO's Office; AND FURTHER THAT staff return to the board later in 2014 for formal adoption of The Living City Policies document. Enclosed for your information and any action deemed necessary is the report as presented to the Executive Committee on January 17, If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact the undersigned at extension 5264 (kstranks@trca.on.ca) or Mary-Ann Burns at extension 5763 (mburns@trca.on.ca) J;;f// j1-j.,) KathyZnks Manager, Corporate Secretariat CEO's Office cc. /Encl. Mary-Ann Burns, Planner II Policy, TRCA Victoria McGrath, Humber Watershed Specialist, TRCA Chandra Sharma, Etobicoke-Mimico Watershed Specialist & Senior Manager, Climate Programs, TRCA Arlen Leeming, Project Manager, Don and Highland Watersheds, TRCA Lia Lappano, Administrative Assistant, Watershed Specialists, TRCA 11EFFFiR/l,:. 1 ~S~-\3_ $'< Cy\SQ S RECO!vH i\\~1'-ided DIRECTION RE:OUIRED RECEIPT RECOMMENDED lel , I Fax I rnfo@'trcaonca I 5ShorehamDnve,DownsvJew.ON M3Nl54

2 TO: FROM: Chair and Members of the Executive Committee Meeting #11/13, January 17,2014 Carolyn Woodland, Director, Planning and Development Item EX7.2 RE: THE LIVING CITY POLICIES FOR PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE WATERSHEDS OF TORONTO AND REGION CONSERVATION AUTHORITY KEY ISSUE To report on the results of public consultation and on revisions to the draft of The Living City Policies, and to release the revised draft for final public and stakeholder review. RECOMMENDATION THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THAT WHEREAS Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) staff conducted public and stakeholder consultation on The Living City Policies draft document and have revised the draft document based on stakeholder feedback; AND WHEREAS staff committed to reporting back to the board on the results of public consultation and on revisions to the draft document; THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED THAT TRCA release a revised draft of The Living City Policies draft document for final public and stakeholder consultation as outlined in this report; THAT TRCA's municipal partners, provincial ministries, the Building Industry and Land Development Association, environmental non-governmental agencies, watershed and waterfront interest groups, neighbouring conservation authorities, and other stakeholders be so advised by the CEO'S Office; AND FURTHER THAT staff return to the board later in 2014 for formal adoption of The Living City Policies document. BACKGROUND At Authority Meeting #11/12, held on January 25, 2013, Resolution #A263/12 was approved as follows: WHEREAS conservation authorities have a legislated and mandated responsibility under the Conservation Authorities Act to have board-approved policies to further the conservation, restoration, development and management of natural resources; AND WHEREAS Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) staff have drafted a policy document entitled: The Living City Policies for Planning and Development in the Watersheds of TRCA, to update and replace TRCA's Valley and Stream Corridor Management Program (1994); 10

3 HA- ' AND WHEREAS public and stakeholder consultation on the draft policy document is a provincial requirement and will improve the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the document; THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED THAT TRCA release The Living City Policies draft document for public and stakeholder consultation as outlined in this report; THAT all of TRCA's municipal partners, provincial ministries, the Building and Land Development Industry (BILD}, environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), watershed and waterfront interest groups, neighbouring conservation authorities and other stakeholders be so advised by the CEO's Office; AND FURTHER THAT staff report back on the outcomes of the consultation process and proposed revisions. The purpose of The Living City Policies (LCP) is four-fold: 1) to guide TRCA review of applications under the Planning Act and undertakings subject to the Environmental Assessment Act ; 2) to provide the basis for approving permit applications under Section 28 of the Conservation Authorities Act ; 3) to inform TRCA's advocacy role for The Living City and sustainable communities in the planning and development process; and 4) to assist and enable TRCA's partners' and stakeholders' contributions to building The Living City. Stakeholder Consultation Since receiving consent from the Authority to consult externally on the draft policy document, staff posted the draft document on TRCA's website with a series of questions to evoke comments from all stakeholders. Staff also conducted three Orientation Sessions at Black Creek Pioneer Village (March 2013) on The LCP, which were well attended by: municipalities, provincial ministries, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) and neighbouring conservation authorities. Attendees were asked to provide their written comments by the end of June Between May and August 2013, staff met individually with several municipalities (by region), the City of Toronto, BILD, Humber Watershed Alliance, Don Council, Etobicoke-Mimico Watersheds Coalition, and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (by phone). Written comments were received over this time period from these and other stakeholders, with extensions granted to municipalities requesting more time to review the document. At the municipal sessions, both regional and local staff attended mainly from planning departments, but some staff representatives from engineering, public works, capital projects (roads and water departments), urban design and parks, also attended. Through the process, the feedback was generally positive and many stakeholders indicated that the document aligned well with their objectives for building sustainable communities. The following is an overview of input grouped by stakeholder type. 11

4 Municipalities: The main message from municipalities was to provide greater clarity in identifying roles and responsibilities to clearly state that municipalities are responsible for the design and planning of communities and that TRCA is not the approval authority under the Planning Act or the Environmental Assessment Act. Municipalities expressed in person and in writing to TRCA staff that the policies in The LCP, as drafted, do not make this sufficiently clear. They commented that the document's language should be adjusted in order to emphasize that TRCA can only make recommendations in the advocacy (Chapter 6), planning and environmental assessment realms (Chapter 7); conversely, they generally felt that the policy language in the Regulation section (Chapter 8) was generally sufficient as drafted because TRCA is the approval authority in the permitting process. Next, municipalities expressed concern over the policies that recommend protection of the "Natural System" as defined only by TRCA. They felt that they, as the approval authorities in the planning process, should be defining a natural system in accordance with the natural heritage systems and policies in their municipal official plans. In general, they felt that The LCP's Natural System policies were too prescriptive, did not account for the natural systems work done by municipalities, and that municipal natural heritage systems in official plans should prevail over TRCA's Natural System. They noted that none of these points were made clear enough in the policy language as drafted. Another common municipal comment was that certain technical guidelines referred to in The LCP that are still under development, such as the Compensation Protocol and the Stream Crossings Guideline, should be consulted on and finalized before having status in The LCP. Finally, a number of municipalities were of the opinion that The LCP should have municipal council endorsement prior to its final approval by the Authority. Accordingly, they requested an extension in The LCP's proposed timeline in order to allow time for municipal staff reporting to their respective Councils. Provincial Ministries: Provincial ministries and the Niagara Escarpment Commission were supportive of the document and made only minor comments for clarification in wording where provincial matters are referenced in the draft. The ministries that commented were: Natural Resources (MNR), Environment, and Municipal Affairs and Housing. MNR stated in their comments: "It is apparent that a lot of work went into developing this draft and TRCA should be commended for a job well done." BILD: The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD)'s commented that The LCP was "clear and well organized". BILD's only major issue with the draft was that they wanted further emphasis on the fact that the Regulation policies were the only chapter for which TRCA is the decision maker. Their comments took this view one step further, by requesting that only the Regulation policies remain as policies, and that the advocacy and planning chapters be made "guidelines" only and not "policies." This would help ensure, in their opinion, that staff would implement the three different types of policies in the appropriate way, i.e., advocacy and planning policies as recommendations; regulation policies as requirements. 12

5 ENGOs: ENGOs were generally content with The LCP draft as written but expressed the need to strengthen the policies to provide more protection for natural systems. In particular, the Peel Federation of Agriculture's comments stood out given that they took the opportunity to express their discontent with the already "multi-layered maze" of environmental regulation in Ontario that, in their opinion, TRCA's policy document compounds. Other ENGOs that commented in writing were Cycle Toronto and Environmental Defense. Both organizations were supportive of The LCP, but wished to see an overall strengthening of the policies to further promote active transportation alternatives to the automobile, and to avoid environmental degradation from development and infrastructure. Other Stakeholders: Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation provided supportive comments on the draft LCP with requests for some minor adjustments. Others who also made minor comments in writing were a private citizen, a private consulting firm and a neighbouring conservation authority. TRCA Staff Internal Review Planning and Development staff also conducted another round of internal review of The LCP in the last several months with TRCA Planning and Development and Ecology staff involved in day-to-day plan review. In September and December, two workshops were held for staff on select chapters in the document; staff from other divisions and sections such as Restoration Services, Watershed Management and Property Services were also invited. A number of theoretical but typical planning and development proposals were presented as case study examples, for which staff had to provide comments using the draft policies. Feedback from this "testing" of The LCP was generally positive with many suggestions for minor adjustments to improve the clarity and usability of the document. Staff have also been keeping TRCA's Directors' Committee up-to-date on the progress of the project. Summary of Responses and Revisions At consultation sessions with external stakeholders, such as municipalities and BILD, staff gave presentations scoped to written comments received and were able to address many stakeholder issues through these presentations and the discussions that ensued. The remaining issues will be addressed through written responses, comment by comment, in a chart that will be made available to commenters. The responses indicate how the comments are addressed either through explanations of what is already in the draft document or through revisions to the document. The following summarizes the main revisions to the document by issue: Issue: The advocacy and planning policies do not make it as clear as they should that municipalities are the decision makers in these realms, especially where the natural heritage systems in municipal official plans conflict with TRCA's Natural System. As suggested by BILD, a solution may be to convert the advocacy and planning chapters to guidelines "only". 13

6 Response/Revision: Staff are confident that having policies for all three chapters (advocacy, planning and regulation) is consistent with provincial direction to conservation authorities (CA) to indicate to all stakeholders the roles and responsibilities of CAs in the planning and development process through a set of publicly consulted-on policies. And in general, most stakeholders were pleased to see all of what TRCA "does" all in "one place", and therefore would not want to see the document split out into separate documents for guidelines and policies. However, staff have revised The LCP with enhanced wording and formatting in the advocacy and planning chapters that further emphasizes the municipal decision making role in the planning and development process and further wording describing how the policies in each section will be used. In particular, the planning policies in The LCP that recommend the protection and dedication of TRCA's Natural System now further emphasize that under the Planning Act review process, the final boundaries of the System are ultimately up to the municipality. The policies reflect current practice whereby the process to determine the boundary is a cooperative endeavour among municipalities and TRCA. TRCA will continue to use our watershed-based research and science to inform this decision making process. including identifying opportunities for restoration, enhancement and compensation. To this end, TRCA will use the Terrestrial Natural Heritage System Strategy (TNHSS) and natural hazard boundary delineation and management in order to maintain the long term health of our watersheds. As well, more diagrams will be added to the document in order to better express the intent of the Natural System delineation policies. In addition to the above, revisions to The LCP acknowledge, as per TRCA's municipal planning advisory service agreements, that TRCA is in no way limited to exercising its rights under the Planning Act, the Conservation Authorities Act, or any other applicable legislation nor limited from independently appealing a planning decision to the Ontario Municipal Board. This is also applicable to TRCA's delegated responsibilities from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Ministry of Natural Resources as part of the Provincial One-Window Plan Review Service to represent the provincial interest on natural hazards encompassed by Section 3.1 of the Provincial Policy Statement Issue: New technical guidelines referred to in The LCP that are still under development, such as the Compensation Protocol and the Stream Crossings Guideline, should be consulted on and finalized before having status in The LCP. Response/Revision: Before any new technical guidelines that support the policies are used in plan review, they will be consulted on externally in draft and then revised and finalized based on feedback. The Compensation Protocol has undergone some initial consultation with municipalities and will be undertaking further consultation in Consultation on the Stream Crossing Guidelines is anticipated for Spring These guidelines are based on recent watershed plan recommendations, ongoing monitoring and scientific research of TRCA staff and its partners, and experience from current practice. Should TRCA's Compensation Protocol or Stream Crossing Guideline not be finalized concurrently with the approval of The LCP, these two policy areas will be "held" while the remainder of the document comes into effect. The current practice for these two areas will apply until the Guidelines are finalized. Issue: Municipal Council endorsement of The LCP should take place prior to Authority approval. 14

7 Response/Revision: In accordance with provincial guidance, as a CA policy document, The LCP only requires Authority approval. Staff, however, acknowledge that municipal council endorsements are welcome as an added layer of support for implementing the policies in the document. Adoption of any of the policies from The LCP by municipalities in their official plans would be an even more helpful initiative. Timeline TRCA staff are maintaining communication with commenters and are using the TRCA website, to continue to inform and consult with all stakeholders. The ongoing process to revise, consult and finalize The LCP over the first half of 2014 is described below. The timeline has shifted since the last report to the Authority, given that most stakeholders required extra time to review and provide comments on the document. Both the discussions and the written comments from external stakeholders and TRCA staff have helped inform revisions to the draft. Staff have now inventoried and reviewed all of the written comments received and the revisions are being completed and confirmed through consultation with senior TRCA staff. Following the Authority meeting on January 31, 2014, a copy of this report and the revised draft document will be posted on the TRCA website welcoming comments from any interested parties. As requested by the stakeholders, the revisions will be in "track changes" Word version format so that differences from the previous version can be easily reviewed. A chart documenting all comments with corresponding responses from TRCA staff will be made available to all stakeholders and in particular, those parties who provided written comments. While waiting for the revised draft to be reviewed, staff will hold a public open house at Black Creek Pioneer Village on the revised document. The draft will also be submitted to TRCA's legal counsel for their review. Once staff receive the final round of comments from all of these parties, final revisions to the document will be made where necessary. Staff anticipate returning to the Authority to recommend adoption of The LCP in mid FINANCIAL DETAILS Conservation authorities have a legislated and mandated responsibility under the Conservation Authorities Act to have board-approved policies. Funding for this project is part of the regular planning and development divisional budgeting process. SUMMARY In consultation with other TRCA staff, municipalities, provincial staff, ENGOs and BILD, TRCA Planning and Development staff have revised a draft policy document to replace the Valley and Stream Corridor Management Program. The revised draft will be ready for public release in February 2014 so that TRCA's partners and the general public will have a second and final opportunity to provide their input to the revised document. Public consultation is a provincial requirement for CA plan review policy documents similar to a municipal official plan review. Staff anticipate that this final consultation process will continue to help create a comprehensive and effective document for TRCA's roles in the planning and development process and, in cooperation with TRCA's partners, will ultimately contribute to a healthy and sustainable city-region. Report prepared by: Mary-Ann Burns, extension mburns@trca.on.ca For Information contact: Laurie Nelson, extension 5281, David Burnett, extension s: lnelson@trca.on.ca, dburnett@trca.on.ca 15