Local Application of the Community Planning Permit System

Ajax retained GPA to assess the potential of the Community Planning Permit (CPP) system and recommend how this alternative to traditional zoning might assist the Town to achieve their growth objectives. The project’s first phase included an in-depth analysis of enabling provincial regulations and a review of Ontario municipalities that have implemented CPP policies through official plans and zoning by-laws. Subsequent phases established the policy base for implementing the CPP. The first step in this process is to create the Official Plan policies that will enable the use of the CPP in the Town as a whole or in specific areas.  After the Official Plan policies were established, our team created a framework CPP By-law which establishes the conditions and processes to be applied at the area specific level. Because stakeholders are largely unfamiliar with the CPP, a common thread that ran throughout the project was to provide clarification on how the CPP differs from traditional zoning and development approvals emphasizing the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach.