Municipalities are taking too long to process site plan applications and that is costing the Ontario economy roughly $3.5 billion a year, up from roughly $300 to $900 million a year in 2018, says the Ontario Association of Architects.

A recently released 31-page report undertaken for the OAA by Altus Group reveals Ontario municipalities are taking an average of 23 months to review site plan applications, far exceeding the provincially mandated 60-day timeline.

One of five approvals needed before an application can proceed to the building permit stage, site plan review is the technical process dealing with building layout, massing, access, parking and landscaping.

“These delays are having significant financial repercussions. For a 100-unit apartment building, site plan holdups result in additional monthly costs ranging from $230,000 to $299,000, placing further strain on developers and homeowners alike,” says the report.

“Every additional month a development application sits in the site plan review process represents a delay in the time the development would reach completion and come to market.”

The largest cost to a municipality is the lost property tax revenue. While a development application is working its way through the review process, “the underlying land will either remain vacant or underutilized.”

And in a market with limited supply, additional months of site plan review time are costly to first-time homebuyers due to the inability to purchase a home and begin building equity sooner.