Ontario Planning Act overhauled: standardized official plan structure, new EV and parking rules, expanded County of Simcoe planning changes

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted · not legal advice

Ontario's Planning Act has been significantly amended by the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026. The most sweeping change (not yet in force) requires all Ontario municipalities and planning boards to rewrite their official plans using a mandatory standardized structure — prescribed chapter titles, section numbering, schedule formats, and a fixed set of land use designations (e.g., Neighbourhoods, Mixed Use Areas, Employment Areas). Larger urban centres face a 2028 deadline; all others and planning boards face 2029. Separately, zoning by-laws and site plan agreements can no longer require owners to provide electric vehicle supply equipment in connection with parking facilities, and there is a new cap on minimum lot size requirements for urban residential land outside the Greenbelt. The County of Simcoe is being phased in as an upper-tier municipality without planning responsibilities, initially for Bradford West Gwillimbury, Innisfil and New Tecumseth, with broader expansion to follow by order-in-council. Site plan control provisions have also been narrowed: references to sustainable design elements on adjoining highways are replaced with a health, safety, accessibility and adjoining-lands test, and certain notice requirements for ministerial plan orders have been repealed.

Who this affects: municipal planning departments and councils · planning boards · landowners and developers · municipalities in the County of Simcoe · property owners subject to site plan control or zoning by-laws