Moving Forward with a Next-Gen Development Approvals System
TORONTO, Ontario, January 2nd, 2023
Development approvals are complex, sometimes requiring the involvement of 45-plus agencies including: conservation authorities, regional governments, provincial and/or federal ministries, Indigenous groups, utility and service providers, and other organizations outside of the municipality you are applying to.
E-permitting systems help digitize the application submission process within a given municipality, but they don’t address issues related to engagement of these external partners. As a developer, you still end up submitting the same information to multiple regulatory authorities.
The current approach, with every municipality adopting a different e-permitting system, is, in fact, further complicating the problem, resulting in communication challenges and the digital siloing of information.
From the perspective of regulatory authorities, there is a growing inability to aggregate or analyze data. This is resulting in longer overall timelines for development. From the developers perspective, especially when working in multiple jurisdictions, every development application is different and has to follow a bespoke process.
Up until now, One Ontario has only been a theory based on many years of research. Now we are moving from theory to reality. AECO Innovation Lab is excited to have funding from CMHC to build and implement the One Ontario pilot system with Simcoe County as our test partner.
By providing a standardized digital front counter, developers will be guided through a streamlined process, and not have to re-submit the same information multiple times into multiple regulatory systems. The system will intelligently push the data that each authority requires seamlessly. Once the system is completed, it won’t matter if you are applying in Burlington, Barrie or Bobcaygeon – the intake process will be the same every time.
Making it BIM and GIS enabled is also a key part of the One Ontario roadmap. Today, no municipality in Canada can accept a BIM. Enabling municipalities to accept BIM will lead to better collaboration with the development community and help to automate some of the arduous processes done manually within municipal building departments today.
One Ontario will future-proof Ontario. Two kinds of information are central to achieving the Next-Gen Development Approval system: building data, stored in a building information model, or BIM, and land and spatial data, stored in a geographic information system, or GIS.
Instead of having to flatten your BIMs onto 2D drawings (in PDFs or on paper), there is an opportunity for municipalities to use the rich BIM data sets directly in the plan review process. Many other jurisdictions around the world have already seen tremendous value in moving to BIM submission.
Research has shown that the quality and completeness of submissions can be partially automated before the municipality even sees the application. A Next-Gen Development Approval System can automatically search through the submission for the required information by looking at the BIM data and related forms and documents. As an applicant, you will be able to immediately tell if there are issues with your submissions, and resolve these issues much faster than you do today – even before submission.
Second, a Next-Gen Development Approval System can automatically check for compliance with many building codes clauses. By leveraging the data in BIM and GIS formats, the system can confirm many dimensional or spatial requirements, greatly reducing the burden on building officials, saving time and resources and providing more time for higher value tasks.
Adopting BIM will allow municipalities to move beyond digitization and enable the automation of tedious tasks to help reviewers build capacity. Municipalities are facing similar hurdles to builders trying to find qualified employees – automation is key or the approvals bottlenecks are bound to get even worse.
With a Next-Gen Development Approval System in place, there is an opportunity for building officials, planners, and applicants to be more collaborative in the design of their cities. We look forward to continuing this journey to support the development community and to showcasing the system in the very near future. Feel free to reach out to oneontario@aecoinnovationlabs.com to learn more.
For more information:
Kristen Tam
Marketing and Communications Manager
AECO Innovation Lab
kristen.tam@aecoinnovationlab.com
