Introduction
Section 34 of Ontario's Planning Act was amended
two years ago to grant specific authority to local municipalities
to pass zoning by-laws with conditions. The City of Toronto Act,
2006, which had been enacted shortly prior to the Planning
Act amendments, contains a separate conditional zoning
authority for the City of Toronto in s. 113.
Generally, this is the first time in Ontario that municipalities
have been permitted to impose conditions upon a specific owner of
land when passing a general zoning by-law. Notwithstanding this
fact, this did not preclude some municipalities in the past from
imposing conditions that landowners provide something in exchange
for the passage of an amendment to a zoning by-law. Such
arrangements were not, however, legislatively permitted and thus
there remains some question as to the validity and enforceability
of such agreements.
