With more than a year in operation on the books, Toronto’s new Development Review division has hit milestones worth noting. According to a report that went to the City’s Executive Council on Wednesday, the new division has successfully improved internal structures, aligned processes, and enhanced interdivisional coordination. “This has helped reduce delays and ensure that as development increases in scale and complexity, it is matched by timely delivery of infrastructure and services that reflect complete communities principles,” it says.
In more specific terms, the division has sped up review timelines for Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, and Site Plan Control by a combined 80% over the five-year average for the metric. In addition, the division is on its way to creating a “concierge-style” service to accelerate housing projects that could begin construction within the next one to two years, including student housing, affordable and supportive housing, and long-term care homes.
READ: Q&A Vith Valesa Faria, Executive Director Of Toronto Development Review
Of course, the budding Development Review team’s work is far from done — this is all is pretty much brand new ground for the City, after all. Valesa Faria, the Executive Director of Development Review since its start in April 2024, tells STOREYS that the division is advancing its priorities through its “first-of-its-kind” Strategic Plan, released this month.
The Plan floats, among other things, a “human rights-based approach to housing development,” which hinges on an all-compassing and multi-generational approach to city building (more on that later). A recent letter from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) expresses “strong support” for the Plan, calling it a “meaningful and forward-looking milestone in how Toronto approaches development review.”
Anyhow, that just touches on the skin and bones of the newfangled Strategic Plan (learn more here). We checked in with Faria for a deeper take on how Development Review is faring, and how the new plan will shape its future.
Valesa Faria, Executive Director Of Toronto Development Review
STOREYS: It’s been over a year since Development Review started. How has the past year and change been, and what have been the milestones?
Valesa Faria: We had a very busy year. It was a year of culture building, continuous improvement here at the City, and building momentum with the team to respond to the rapidly changing economic environment, to rapidly changing geopolitical environments. In 2024, we consolidated over 400 staff from across the city into one division, and it's a multidisciplinary team with community planners, engineers, project managers, policy professionals — and that has really helped us to move faster on applications. Our metrics have improved dramatically, and on average, we are approving [new] applications 80% faster than we were five years ago.
We also were able to approve over 46,000 homes in 2024, which is a remarkable achievement. The City of Toronto, on average, approves up to 450 applications per year, plus 1,200 resubmissions, so that's more than any other jurisdiction in Canada. In 2024 we also expanded our priority development review stream. The stream is typically focused on advancing affordable and supportive housing projects, but we expanded it to include any long term-care home projects, as well as manufacturing facilities, because we're very focused on helping to support the economy, helping to create new jobs. We also streamlined our draft plan of condominium process, which makes the process a lot more efficient than it was. It has reduced the number of studies that we request from applicants from a minimum of 30 down to a minimum of six. So this means faster approvals and less cost for applicants to support getting projects built in a in a challenging market environment.
S: Talk to us about Development Review’s just released, first-of-its-kind Strategic Plan?
VF: We presented our first Strategic Plan to the Executive Committee yesterday, which was very exciting. So our Strategic Plan, it's the first plan in not only Toronto, but in Canada, that is really or primarily focused on the development review process. And that plan has 20 tangible actions to improve the development review system in Toronto and four key priorities, which include investing in people and partnerships. That includes investing in our staff, as well as strengthening relationships with other orders of government, with industry, with the communities that we serve, and making sure that we get input from equity deserving groups and Indigenous communities. The second key part for us is streamline our Site Plan process, and we're going to replicate that across the board for all major application types to have a quicker, faster, less costly process.
S: So why release the new Strategic Plan now?
VF: The strat plan is a fundamental document for our division; we needed to develop our identity and really create a roadmap to guide our efforts and achieve our mandates over the next three years. It includes input from about 300 city staff and stakeholders, and we also worked with external consultants. We also looked at other jurisdictions and found that most of the jurisdictions in Canada — and I would say across North America — do not isolate the development review process from a typical sort of planning framework or planning policy documents, so what we're doing here is brand new for Toronto. We recognize that the development review process is a key lever in helping to address the housing crisis. It's not the only lever, but it's a big one. If we improve our processes and are able to reduce bottlenecks in the system and provide that level of certainty for applicants, it means we're reducing risk and reducing costs.
S: Have you received any pushback to Development Review, and do you anticipate any for the Strategic Plan?
VF: Some challenges that we continue to address are modernizing our technology. We are working with very old systems that need to be updated. So our strat plan lays out key activities, actions that we will take over the next three years to be successful and so applicants can rely on us for real time updates. In the past with the City, we, when we looked at the development review process, we were not looking at very specific data points. And data for us means get making sure projects are delivered on time and that we are, we're not only moving faster, but achieving the best possible city-building outcomes.
S: When you when you talk about data, would an example would be the number of Site Plan applications that have been approved?
VF: Yes. Over the past, year, we have released quarterly update reports on Development Review metrics. So that's important for us in terms of building public confidence in what we're doing, being more transparent, and really proving that we are moving faster. We also reached out to applicants to make sure that they're feeling the change that the data is showing — that they're feeling it underground. So, the focus is not only on on the qualitative data, but also the quantitative data.
S: So does that tie into the Toronto Housing Hub?
VF: The Toronto Data Hub includes our data. So we've started publishing that data on a monthly basis [around two months ago]. And if you look at that service level data hub, it shows what we're doing in Development Review — so number of applications, number of approvals. It also shows how many building permits were approved or issued. It also looks at the housing policy side of things; are we meeting our federal targets? So that hub is really meant to give a global view in terms of what the city is doing, not only from a development review perspective, but also from Housing Secretariat, city planning, and Toronto building perspectives.
S: In the Strategic Plan plan, there is mention of a “human-rights based approach” to housing development. Can you talk to us more about that and how it differs from what the city has offered before?
VF: It's one of the most exciting and innovative features of our Strategic Plan. It's a new concept, not only in Toronto, but I would say, across Canada. And what that really means is the development review process is highly technical — technical compliance is key, of course, it's a regulatory process. But the City of Toronto and other cities across Canada — and I would go so far as to say across North America — have never really married the technical process with a human-rights based approach. And what that means is thinking about, when we are approving applications, are we getting input from equity deserving groups? Are Indigenous voices being heard in the process. And more importantly, are the developments that are being built, are they serving the needs of everyone, including current and future residents of the city. So, it's really taking, I would say, a multi-generational approach to make sure that we are building a city where everyone is included.
S: Do you anticipate any criticism with respect to the Strategic Plan and the work Development Review in general is doing?
VF: The strat plan has been well received by multiple stakeholders, including internally, with our staff, with colleagues, and with the development industry. There is a glowing letter of support from BILD, and they have been a key stakeholder in helping us to identify the priorities, from their perspective, that helps us build that confidence and support in the development industry during a really challenging time. All that to say, we took a very comprehensive approach to engagements, and the feedback has been really great from a whole range of stakeholders thus far.
S: How will Development Review Work with Toronto’s newly established Housing Development Office?
VF: So the office is brand new, and the new Executive Director, Hugh Clark, just started a couple of days ago. This office will work very closely with Development Review, as well as with the Housing Secretariat, city planning, and Toronto building, and will act as a coordinating body within the city.
To learn more about Toronto’s newly launched Housing Development Office, stay tuned for our interview with the Deputy City Manager of Development and Growth Services Jag Sharma’s interview with STOREYS later this month.
Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
