LPASC AWAY

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjaME3BATNm/

“The Government of Ontario has made a decision to close the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre (LPASC). LPASC has until June 30, 2019 to wind down the business”.

And with that, a mechanism for community-based city-building goes down the drain. I offer some thoughts, admittedly fresh and brief, as they came to me shortly after the Notice was posted.

First, a quick primer:

1. The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) was an independent judicial tribunal that heard “cases in relation to a range of municipal planning, financial and land matters. These include matters such as official plans, zoning by-laws, subdivision plans, consents and minor variances, land compensations, development charges, electoral ward boundaries, municipal finances, aggregate resources and other issues assigned by numerous Ontario statutes.”
2. That all sounds super fancy, so for my brief purposes: when a resident wanted to appeal a development, they would do so through the OMB.
3. The OMB was oft-criticized for a) favoring the development concerns of the Province over those of municipalities and b) favoring the concerns of developers over those of residents.
4. The Wynne administration reformed the OMB as the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) less than a year ago, in part as a response to the criticisms above. (See this and this and this).
5. Along with the LPAT, the Province created the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre (LPASC). The LPASC’s mandate was to provide “information to citizens on the complicated land-use planning process, guiding neighbourhood groups through public meetings. It also offers free legal help with appeals of municipal zoning decisions.”
6. Once more, in simpler terms: Have a problem with a development or a neighbour’s addition to their house but don’t speak plannerese? Want to contest a development but don’t have the deep pockets to pay for top-notch legal representation like those building the condo across the road? The LPASC to the rescue.

Now some thoughts:

1. This is a real shame, not at all because we had any inkling that the LPASC and its related tribunal were making any real progress in changing development decisions. It was just way too early. Besides, maybe you thought those decisions were just fine to begin with. The real shame is in losing an organization that informs residents. Even if half of those appeals were to never get off the ground or gain any legal traction, the real success of the LPASC, in my view, was in explaining to otherwise keen residents just why an appeal would be no good and what they might do in the future to act in ways that would be meaningful. In speaking with various individuals involved in one capacity or another with LPAT-related mediations, I can confirm that this was a common sentiment. Maybe the educational component was only ever supposed to be a bonus. I am of the opinion that the bonus, in this case, was actually more valuable than the intended outcome.
2. Some other things to consider (mostly culled from this and this):
   A. The justification seems to be that “demand for the centre’s services has been low, averaging just three enquiries per day.”
   B. Critics are arguing that this cements the Ford administration’s desire to capitulate to wealthy developers’ desires over those of ordinary citizens and are calling it a “blow to local democracy”. Additionally, the chair of the centre’s board of directors, Anna Pace, is quoted saying, “we were getting an increasing number of inquiries, and a number of people let us know they really appreciated the information we were able to give them.”

I recommend both news stories cited above.