By Claude & Parth on 2026-04-10, City: Grimsby, View Transcript
The Planning and Development Committee met to review the Building Division’s 2025 accomplishments and begin its review of the town’s revised draft Official Plan. Staff reported that CloudPermit—an online building permit system—launched on Jan. 1, 2026 and has “received overwhelming positive feedback from applicants and homeowners alike,” while committee members pressed for measurable evidence of savings before considering upcoming permit fee increases. The committee also discussed development-approval timelines, with Councillor Freak warning that delays can cause investors to miss deadlines and leave. The revised draft Official Plan, described as a 700-page document, is under review with a public comment deadline of May 6, 2026 at 4:30 p.m., and staff anticipating council adoption in June 2026.
Staff said CloudPermit allows residents to submit building permits online and described it as part of a broader effort to modernize processes. Tori said staff are “particularly excited about the division’s focus to modernize processes, including the launch of Cloud Permit, an online tool that allows anyone to submit online building permits.” Another staff member said the system’s launch date was Jan. 1 and that it has “greatly improved our administrative efficiency since we’ve begun using it this year.”
Committee members asked how those efficiencies translate into cost savings—particularly with permit fee changes coming forward. One member said they want to see savings “passed down to either the residents or the investors that are building in the town.” Staff said they do not yet have “hard numbers or hard data to reflect the efficiencies,” but indicated they would work on providing that information.
Councillor Freak argued that timelines—not “red tape”—are the core issue when projects are trying to meet business deadlines. “If they don’t get to open their facilities on time then sometimes they just pull out and go somewhere else,” Freak said. Another member added that the town has come close to losing projects before: “We came close by the way in a couple of cases…where it came down to that and now we have another big name coming to town and they’re under a deadline.”
The committee began reviewing the revised draft Official Plan (Report PA-26-10), which members noted was lengthy. One member joked, “700 pages was really what I needed over coffee this morning.”
Staff highlighted structural changes to the document. Lauren said “the most significant is the combining and clarifying of land use policies in the built form framework,” explaining that policies previously split across chapters have been “united…into a single chapter” organized by place types such as “centers, nodes, corridors, residential areas etc.”
The public comment deadline was set for May 6, 2026 at 4:30 p.m., with adoption expected in June 2026.
Staff reported building activity was slightly down in 2025 compared with prior years, and discussed expectations for 2026. A staff member cautioned against overconfidence in projections, saying: “I think I’ll hold judgment till this time next year…with the economic uncertainties and simple things like the price of gasoline and diesel and the knock-on effects into the supply chain.”
The committee also discussed a building fee study aimed at “full cost recovery,” and upcoming bylaw work planned for 2026.
Staff reported that, following changes tied to the regional official plan, the town is now responsible for archaeological management review. One staff member said: “As of 2025 since the consolidation of the regional official plan we are now responsible for archaeological management review,” adding that heritage staff completed “over 68 archaeological assessments for the year of 2025.”
Note: Full attendance list not provided in transcript