Streamlining development approvals funding initiative

Kitchener is changing, growing and adapting at a record rate. As a result, city staff have sustained a high level of demand in terms of processing development approvals within provincial timelines with the commitment of supporting the development of 35,000 homes by 2031.

In 2022, the Province of Ontario granted the City of Kitchener $1,000,000 for the purpose of streamlining our development approval processes and addressing backlogs. Our objective with the eight Streamlining Development Approvals Fund (SDAF) projects was to gain momentum from the continuous improvement work that we have already undertaken. Together with what we've heard from our stakeholders, as well as the findings of several Lean reviews completed between 2019 and 2021, we undertook eight projects to further streamline development approvals and bring housing units to market quicker.

The eight projects undertaken with the support of SDAF funding include:

Digital Improvements and Online Public Portal Development
Temporary Positions to Clear Development Review Backlog
Third Party Process Review for Parks
Inclusionary Zoning for Affordable Housing – Policy and Implementation Guidelines
Enabling Missing Middle and Affordable Housing Study
Cumulative Impact Analysis
Online Booking System
Mobile Technology for Onsite Inspections

Download the full report to learn more

Key outcomes

Leveraging the SDAF funding, Kitchener made significant progress in reducing development review backlogs and streamlining processes. Here are some highlights of the outcomes:

Overall, process improvements implemented are estimated to save staff 7000 hours per year cumulatively across the organization.
The foundational work for a public portal for development applications and online payments was established with the launch of the building permit applications in November 2022. Once all initiated digital improvements are in place, they are expected to account for the most significant ongoing time savings, estimated at 5,660 hours annually of staff time saved across the corporation.
Temporary staff have provided much relief to the development review backlog supporting over 200 development applications and 39 site inspections – saving other staff close to 1600 hours of time to focus on more complex development applications. This has supported:

1370+ housing units through their development approvals;
$2.176 million returned site securities that can be used for future development; and
Increased capacity allowed other staff to meet provincial timelines for all Official Plan amendments, Zoning Bylaw amendments and site plan approvals in 2023.

The streamlined Consolidated Linear Infrastructure Permissions Approach for Environmental Compliance Approvals (CLI-ECA) led by our Stormwater and Sanitary Utilities team has compressed the approvals timeframe to four to eight weeks compared to the previous Ministry-led approach, which took six to 12+ months for approvals.
The Enabling Missing Middle and Affordable Housing study highlighted the importance of minimizing time and cost barriers to building housing which strongly aligns with the efforts through these SDAF project initiatives planned or underway. Recommendations in the report to expand as-of-right zoning permissions will reduce the number of applications needed to get shovels in the ground as new zoning is enacted in 2024 and beyond.
Streamlining the Parks division’s role in subdivisions will not only support bringing housing to market quicker but will foster complete communities through valued park space.
Kitchener’s new development meeting booking system saves applicant teams time and sets clear expectations to support their project planning.
Mobile technology to support inspections is expected to save staff across several teams over 500 hours annually.

With the support of the Streamlining Development Approvals Funding initiative, we prepared these digital tools, resources and reports: