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WCEL
> Issues > Urban Growth and
Development > Smart Bylaws Guide > Part
8
Smart Bylaws Guide – Part 8
8. Promote Smart Growth Through the Development Process by
Reforming Administrative Processes and Addressing Liability Issues
When planning and project approvals take an inclusive and
results-based approach, the development process works more
efficiently. It also works more harmoniously because citizens have
helped to set the vision for their community and understand where
and how development will occur. Acrimonious hearings and slow
approvals deter developers from trying innovative projects, and
create mistrust between a local government and its citizens. By
encouraging ongoing community dialogue – from the development of
official community plans to the design of traffic calming
infrastructure – many municipalities are creating a culture of
cooperation where the final product is appropriate for a
neighbourhood and contributes to a regional vision for compact
complete communities.
At first glance, it may appear that asking developers to gain
community support before coming forward with a project will add
significant time and costs to the project. However, many complex
projects have been rejected or stalled at public hearings after the
developer and community have been engaged in a hostile discussion in
the media. Other projects have received council accolades because
the developer has worked effectively with the community and staff to
create a high quality project that has addressed neighbourhood
concerns.
When developers are asked why they do not bring forward
innovative projects more often, they respond that they cannot afford
the added time involved in securing municipal approvals. Municipal
staff in different departments do not sit down together to work out
approvals issues, and the rejection of one aspect of a project can
change the entire project. Some local governments are addressing
these problems by taking an integrated project management approach to
more complex developments so that approvals can be worked out
collaboratively. The municipal team meets with the developer’s
team on a regular basis to solve problems and move the project
forward on a schedule.
Quantifying the real benefit and costs of new development
requires standards against which municipal staff and officials can
evaluate individual projects. Several checklists exist that help
local governments to assess projects and bylaws when measured against
the communities' long-term goals and standards. They provide a
consistent approach to determining whether a new project is indeed
smart growth.
Concerns about liability stop innovative projects. This is
particularly evident in the area of surface stormwater drainage.
Developers and municipalities are addressing risks through adaptive
management agreements (evaluating the performance of new management
approaches and changing practices over time as experience is gained
on a project) and monitoring. By requiring ongoing monitoring of new
technologies and approaches, municipalities are building up a body
of knowledge that will decrease liability concerns about new
approaches over the long term.
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