Ontario will expand powers for new developments to bypass planning process [Video]

The Ford government is considering handing new powers to the minister of infrastructure that would allow her to exempt transit-oriented communities from a slew of zoning and planning rules, Global News has learned, in order to speed up the creation of the developments built directly above transit lines.

As part of a bill set to be tabled next week — the Protecting Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act — the government will allow the infrastructure minister to issue minister’s zoning orders, power previously reserved for the minister of municipal affairs and housing.

Those orders allow projects to skip large parts of the planning process normally governed by local councils and municipal rules.

Developments given minister’s zoning orders don’t need to comply with local height requirements, parking rules or other zoning specifications normally enforced on developers by towns and cities.

“This legislation does not change the existing MZO process,” a spokesperson for the Minister of Infrastructure told …