“The OMB is back.”

That message drew a full house, standing-room only crowd at city hall on Monday night as residents packed the council chamber to hear about legislation proposed by the Ford government that would bring the return of the controversial Ontario Municipal Board, a provincially-appointed body responsible for deciding most disputes over land use for more than 100 years.

The meeting followed an announcement from Premier Doug Ford that he was walking back cuts to city services. But Bill 108, the More Homes, More Choice Act, introduced on May 2 — an omnibus bill amending 13 separate, existing acts governing everything from fees for developers to protection of endangered species with huge potentially financial impacts for Toronto — was as of Monday still moving ahead.

“We cannot go quietly without saying something,” Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 13 Toronto Centre),” told the crowd. She noted the years-long campaign waged to stop the OMB in the first place.

“I can’t believe (it), but we’re here to do it again.”

Councillors on Monday night went through examples of what’s often referred to as “planning by OMB” and said the new bill will serve the interests of developers but does little to ensure new affordable housing as government officials claim it will.

“It’s not about making housing, it’s about making money,” said Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park).

Those and other comments against the planned changes received cheers from the audience and calls for action, as councillors again asked, at the very least, for the province to put the proposed legislation on hold.

“I think we have to say we don’t accept the premise of trying to do this in this absurdly short period of time,” said urban designer Ken Greenberg.

A separate meeting — which chief planner Gregg Lintern called similarly packed — was held in North York, organized by local councillors there, on the same issues.

Significantly, Bill 108 returns the rules of the OMB, allowing provincially-appointed adjudicators to essentially decide what development is allowed where while, if they choose, overruling decisions of local councils. Those decisions are made after hearings that consider the development application as new — as though the work of city staff and consideration of council never happened.

The proposed change comes just one year after the previous Liberal government did away with the OMB and replaced it with the new Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), which was to give more deference to local decision-making.

With new legislation on the table, the LPAT has yet to release any substantial decisions, providing no insight into the functioning of the OMB replacement. Confusing matters, the LPAT name would remain under the Ford government legislation, but the old OMB rules would be in effect.

Towers that significantly shadow parks, are far taller and denser that city planners deemed appropriate and built without sufficient infrastructure for the local community — schools, parks and more — were examples of OMB-decided development showcased by councillors on the big screen Monday.

“Bill 108 is worse than the OMB we knew,” Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 12 Toronto-St. Paul’s) told the crowd. “This is a giveaway to the development industry, allowing them to make a profit at the expense of the average resident.”

Earlier this month, council voted unanimously to ask the province to provide the city and others with more time to officially comment on the proposed changes, saying the June 1 closing was too narrow. Only one day of hearings is currently scheduled at Queen’s Park on May 31.

Bill 108 also changes the process for securing community benefits, though there remain many unknowns. It will blend together three separate tools the city currently uses to create new parkland, child care, libraries, community centres and other infrastructure.

It also forces municipalities to choose between securing cash for benefits like building new community centres or the tool that allows them to require parkland on-site of new developments — what some have described as a kind of “Sophie’s Choice.”

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“You don’t want to pit housing against good planning,” senior planner Annely Zonena told the crowd. “It’s the first time in a generation we’ve had to choose either or.”

Meanwhile, city staff are still awaiting additional information from the province, that will be introduced through regulation.

“It is very challenging to assess the full impact of what Bill 108 might be,” Zonena said.