1. Introduction
The Town of Fort Erie’s By-law 63-09 requires pre-consultation with Town Planning Staff prior to submitting an application for an Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, Draft Plan of Subdivision, Draft Plan of Condominium, Consents or Site Plan Approval. This guide has been developed to provide assistance to the applicant during the pre-consultation process and provides information on what constitutes a complete application.
2. Purpose of the Pre-consultation Process
The purpose of pre-consultation is to provide an opportunity for the applicant to review their development proposal with Town Staff and other key agencies, as applicable, when the proposal is preliminary. This provides for early identification of issues, constraints and opportunities. Pre-consultation involves the applicant providing conceptual, descriptive and sometimes technical information on a development proposal to Town Staff and key agencies if applicable to assist them in assessing the completeness of the application and the merits of a proposal.
Topics for discussion may include land use policies and guidelines, zoning information, public consultation, engineering requirements, development review and application fees. The Pre consultation Process will provide the applicant with the following:
- Information on what applications are required to permit their development proposal
- Information on what studies and documentation will be required in support of the required applications
- The application processing fees associated with the proposal
- The estimated timeframe to process the application once a complete application is received
- Reasonable certainty as to whether the development proposal would be supported by Planning Staff (i.e. whether they would recommend approval or denial).
- Potential obstacles, challenges, road blocks that may impact the process.
Note that staff have the ability to waive requirements for pre-consultation. Less complex applications may not require pre-consultation.
3. Difference between Pre-consultation and Conversation
A pre-consultation meeting is different from preliminary conversations at the planning counter, on the phone or when meeting with municipal, regional or external agency staff. Information gathering is a necessary due diligence step to get started. Most development proposals start with a conversation, and if they proceed, lead to a pre-consultation meeting.
4. How to Proceed through the Pre-consultation Process
The applicant should begin the pre-consultation process at the earliest possible time. It is appropriate to contact the Town to discuss the development proposal as soon as the specifics of the proposal are known to the applicant. The Town has designed a two-step pre consultation process to help promote the exchange of information and development considerations early in the planning process.
a) Preliminary Review
The applicant should contact Planning Staff and advise them of their desire to begin the preconsultation process. Staff will ask the applicant a number of questions about the proposal to determine the extent of pre-consultation that will be required. Planning Staff will request that the applicant provide a completed Pre-consultation Request Form (Appendix 2) along with the required fees for preliminary review and information on their proposal in accordance with pre-consultation information requirements. Information and fee requirements are listed in Appendix 1.
Planning staff will review the information provided by the applicant and circulate it to relevant Town Staff and outside agencies for their review and comment. All information must be received a minimum of one week prior to the pre-consultation meeting. In addition, Town Staff will provide advance planning pre-consultation meeting information to internal staff and outside agencies. If a pre-consultation meeting is required based on review of the information, it will be scheduled with the applicant, internal Town Staff and outside agencies. This meeting will be coordinated by Planning staff and is held on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month.
The pre-consultation agreement will be provided to the applicant by staff and contains a checklist that is suitable for minor applications with a narrow scope of issues, but larger, more complex projects may contain supplemental written responses from the agencies. The pre-consultation agreement will be completed at the pre-consultation meeting and forwarded to the applicant following the meeting.
At the conclusion of the pre-consultation process, the applicant will have written comments and a formal pre-consultation agreement that describes the requirement for a complete application. It is now up to the applicant to submit the development application in accordance with the agreement.
5. Pre-consultation Meeting Take-Aways
A pre-consultation meeting form will be provided to the applicant indicating what applications are required for the development proposal, what studies and documentation need to be submitted in support of the required application, the application processing fees, the estimated time frame to process the application once a complete application is received, the current development charges, any financial incentives that the project may be eligible for, and a design checklist for subdivisions.
6) Contact Information
To Commence the pre-consultation process please contact:
Planning Technician
Phone No. (905) 871-1600 Ext. 2526
Fax No. (905) 871-6411
or
Mohammad Kamruzzaman
Zoning Technician
Phone No. (905) 871-1600 Ext. 2521
Please note that applicants may contact Planning Staff informally before fulfilling the Town’s preconsultation requirements if they require further information or clarification, or if they are developing land for the first time.
7) Next Steps
Once pre-consultation is complete, the applicant can submit the appropriate applications and
supporting information to permit their development proposal. Diagrams illustrating the steps in the Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, Draft Plan of Subdivision, Draft Plan of Condominium, Site Plan Approval and Consents/Boundary Adjustment processes are included in this Appendix 4.
