Applications / MZO Strategy
A Minister's Zoning Order can zone land outside the ordinary municipal process. It is also discretionary, political, and refused far more often than it is granted. The first useful question is whether yours is a candidate at all.
Under Section 47 of the Planning Act the Minister may zone land directly. An order made this way is not a municipal by-law, and the ordinary rights of appeal that attach to a zoning by-law amendment do not apply to it in the same way.
What it is not is a shortcut available on request. It is discretionary relief, generally requiring municipal support, and it is granted against provincial priorities rather than the merits of a single project in isolation.
Most sites are not MZO candidates, and the most valuable thing we can tell you is that yours is one of them, before you spend months building a request and burning municipal goodwill on it.
Where a site does have a case, it usually turns on alignment with a stated provincial priority, a demonstrable barrier that ordinary process cannot resolve in a workable timeframe, and a realistic path to municipal support or at least municipal neutrality.
We prepare the planning rationale, assemble the supporting material, and coordinate the municipal and provincial engagement the request depends on.
We also plan the alternative in parallel. A request that fails leaves you where you started, and a conventional amendment that was never started in the meantime has cost you the whole year.
See the full pricing schedule.
FAQ
Tell us about the site and what is blocking it. We will tell you honestly whether an MZO is realistic before you spend anything on one.
Get a Quote