Home / How Much a Rezoning Costs
Short answer: planning fees for a Zoning By-law Amendment start at $15,000, but on a rezoning the planning fee is rarely the biggest line. Municipal fees and studies usually are. Here is the full picture.
A rezoning, formally a Zoning By-law Amendment under Section 34 of the Planning Act, costs more than a minor variance because it changes the zoning itself rather than bending one standard. There are three cost layers: the planning fee, the municipal application fee, and the technical studies.
Permit.Land's planning fee for a Zoning By-law Amendment is fixed and starts at $15,000. If the project also needs an Official Plan Amendment, that starts at $15,000 on its own or $25,000 for the two filed together. The municipal application fee for a rezoning is typically much higher than for a variance, often five figures in larger municipalities, and studies add more on top.
On most rezonings, the municipal application fee and the studies cost more than the planning work. A city's rezoning application fee can run from several thousand dollars to well over twenty thousand depending on the municipality and the size of the project. Then come the studies the city requires at pre-consultation: traffic, servicing, urban design, environmental, heritage, and others depending on the site.
This is why a fixed planning fee matters. It is the one major line you can lock down at the start, while the others depend on your municipality and what your specific site triggers.
The fixed planning fee covers the planner's work end to end: the policy analysis, the Planning Justification Report, the draft amendment, the submission, coordination of the consultant team, liaison with city staff through the review, the statutory public meeting, and the push toward conditions of approval.
Re-submissions and responses to city comments are included. Ontario Land Tribunal representation, if the application is refused or appealed, is a separate engagement quoted to scope.
Because the municipal fee and the study list are site-specific, the only way to a reliable total is pre-consultation, the mandatory meeting where the city tells you exactly which studies it will require. Planning due diligence before you buy or commit can also flag the likely cost and risk early.
We give you the fixed planning fee up front and a realistic range for the rest, then the pre-consultation pins it down before you are committed to the full spend.
See the full pricing schedule or the Zoning By-law Amendment page.
Related guides: How long a rezoning takes · What an OPA costs
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