Condition Critical: Ontario Land Tribunal Confirms Limits of Conditions on Minor Variance Approvals

April 25, 2025 | Lee English, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Committees of Adjustment in Ontario routinely impose conditions on minor variance approvals. More often than not, successful applicants for minor variances to applicable zoning by-laws agree with the conditions or are otherwise willing to accept a disagreeable condition in order to obtain an approval.

While Committees have broad statutory authority to impose such conditions, their powers are not unlimited. In Newstrom Investments Inc. v Richmond Hill (City), 2024 CarswellOnt 16624, the Ontario Land Tribunal confirmed the long-standing principle that minor variance conditions must be “reasonably related” to the variance(s) applied for.

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