Expensive 40 year old piles of dirt.The bogus heritage landscape argument in theory could end up costing Oakville hundreds of millions in compensation.
Those measures alone would dramatically lessen the procedural obstacles facing new housing construction in Ontario municipalities, but the report goes further: it argues that the province should also restrict the use of heritage-preservation laws (in the language of the report, “prevent abuse of the heritage preservation and designation process”) by dramatically reducing the scope of municipal heritage powers and requiring cities to compensate property owners for the loss of development or sales income from their land. The report also calls on the province to ensure that municipalities hit legislated timelines for approvals and that the Ontario Land Tribunal (successor to the Ontario Municipal Board) be empowered to penalize municipalities that seek to thwart timely approvals.