Huron County's Planning Manager brought county council up to date on some of the changes contained in Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, at this week's council meeting.
Denise Van Amersfoort says when Bill 23 was initially proposed, they had discussed removing third-party appeal rights for all applications.
“In the end it's only minor variances and consents which now have no third party right of appeal. One of the other changes is that we're no longer required to have public meetings for new plans of subdivision or plans of condominium," Van Amersfoort explained.
Van Amersfoort says that will be something new for someone who lives beside a property that's being developed for a plan of subdivision. She says rather than attending a public meeting, they'll have to contact planning department staff and provide their comments in writing.
“There's no longer site plan approval for residential properties containing ten or less units and there's also no exterior design control for new buildings going up in the community. So those again are changes that we'll be rolling out and implementing at the local level," added Van Amersfoort.
There will be more changes announced in the future, Van Amersfoort believes, but they don't know at this point what those might be or how they'll impact Huron County.
