Burlington Council Unanimously Approves Increasing Resources to Speed Up Processing Development Applications

I want to thank Kelvin Galbraith, Deputy Mayor for Business & Red Tape Reduction and Ward 1 Councillor, and Paul Sharman, Deputy Mayor for Strategy & Budgets and Ward 5 Councillor, for working with me to bring this motion forward to provide resources to speed up processing of development applications.A delayed project is a killed project. We have heard of projects not coming to Burlington because the process to approve was too slow.Every delay in getting shovels in the ground means lost tax revenue, lost investment and in some cases lost jobs, This puts added pressure on existing taxpayers to make up the difference.An increase in vacancies and turnover in our planning department, combined with a significant increase in the volume of work has put significant pressure on our site-engineering staff. I’m pleased Council unanimously supported providing some immediate relief and with a report back on a plan to prepare for what is coming.Click here for the motion memo: Motion-Memorandum - Site Eng 25Nov2022.Please see below for the full motion that was approved unanimously by Council:

Direct the Director of Engineering Services to provide a staff report in January 2023 with options and recommendations related to the immediate resource requirements of the Site Engineering section to effectively deliver the fundamental components for timely review and processing of development application approvals.  This report is to include, but not be limited to the following:

• Identification of the resources required to meet Site Engineering’s current backlog and projected ongoing high volume of development applications
• Analysis of resources (staffing/external contracted services) and related operating costs and recommendations based on objective of achieving full fee recovery. To the extent that any net tax-supported funding is required, identify the impact of the recommendations of the report on the 2023 Proposed Operating Budget; and

Direct the Executive Director of Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility and the Executive Director of Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services to provide a report back in Q2 on the following:

• An update on all active development applications by application type and application status inclusive of backlogged files and estimated timelines for completion
• Similar to the Site Engineering report in Jan 2023, present options and recommendations to address the immediate resource needs related to other key functional areas within the development application approval process, including but not limited to Transportation Planning, Planning Implementation and Forestry. The report should also address the known and anticipated impacts on development application processing of new Provincial legislation Bill 109, proposed Bill 23 and any other Provincial legislation changes that may be proposed in the intervening time.

RELATED LINK:

• Burlington City Council Meeting Minutes_Dec 13 2022