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Design Review Panel |
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General Information
Contents
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What is a Design Review Panel?
Design Review Panels (DRPs) are comprised of volunteer design professionals, including architects, landscape architects, urban designers and engineers. They provide professional, objective advice aimed at improving matters of design that affect the public realm, which includes the design of streets, parks, open spaces and buildings. In doing so, DRPs can help raise standards of development, encourage designers to avoid compromising on quality, and help make new development compatible with its surroundings. The expert advice provided by Panel members can improve the quality of even the most complex and refined projects. As such, the design review process is a powerful addition to the development approval process.
Design Review Panels are integrated within the development approvals process to provide advice to City staff on matters such as preserving the uniqueness of place, maintaining vitality, ensuring comfort and safety, and making new development compatible with its surroundings. The Panel provides advice for both private development and public projects, including advice on new urban design policy. Advice is based on publicly approved criteria such as zoning, secondary plans and urban design guidelines and responds to the physical context of proposed projects.
Design Review Panel Background
The feasibility for incorporating a Design Review Panel within the development approvals in Toronto was examined during a pilot period which ran from 2007-2009. During this period, the Panel reviewed development proposals and public projects within selected “Pilot Areas” of the City. Evaluation of the Pilot Project, which included consultation with the design and development industry, showed that the review process was seen as being a largely positive addition to development approvals process (For more information click here and search for "design review panel"). No major objections to the process were identified throughout the course of the Pilot Project. Constructive comments and suggestions for improvement provided during this period were used to refine the process so that it more accurately responds to the concerns of all stakeholders. The two-year term of the Pilot Project provided sufficient examination of the process, and City Council approved permanent continuation of the Design Review Panel at the end of pilot period.
The Design Review Panel is set up as an advisory body to City staff, and takes place as an additional stream of consultation within the existing framework of development review. Advice from the Panel is focused on matters of design that affect the public realm. The process of design review does not affect approval timelines, and the process of community input and the role of Council to approve development remain unchanged.
Implementing a permanent DRP will improve the overall design quality within the City both through means of civic leadership, by raising awareness and giving design the priority it deserves, and through the planning process, by encouraging higher design standards. These objectives are supported by policies within the Provincial Policy Statement and the City of Toronto Official Plan, and other initiatives of City Council such as the Agenda for Prosperity.
Design Review Panel Mandate
The Design Review Panel will assist Council in fulfilling Official Plan objectives by providing staff with professional design advice on public and private development. The Panel’s goal is to improve people’s quality of life by promoting design excellence within the public realm, including the pursuit of high quality architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and environmental sustainability.
Thresholds for Capital Works Projects
City Council (November 2009) adopted recommendations which require all Agencies and Divisions which conduct capital projects with significant public realm impacts to include early consultation with the Design Review Panel as part of undertaking those projects.
Projects which contain minimal long-term visual impacts to the public realm, such as road resurfacing and construction in a location which is not visible or publicly accessible, are excluded from the process.
Thresholds for Private Development
The Design Review Panel will review new Site Plan and Rezoning applications which satisfy the related criteria outlined within this attachment.
Project Review Timing
In recognition of the fact that design issues are not necessarily resolved at the pre-application stage and furthermore, that some often remain to be resolved once a formal application has been submitted, projects within the design review process will be reviewed twice as follows:
First / Schematic Review
The first review (schematic) review should be scheduled early enough during the initial functional design stages, or during policy development, to afford the possibilities of significant changes, if advised by the Panel.
Second / Final Review
The second (final) is intended to occur after revisions have been made, and is intended to contribute to the process of detailed design finessing.
Panel Membership
The Design Review Panel is comprised of 13 volunteer members who have been appointed for a period of two years. There are no City staff or elected officials on the Design Review Panel.
Criteria for Panel nomination includes a minimum of 15 years of relevant professional experience and membership in professional design associations in respective fields. Membership nominations for the Design Review Panel were made by professional associations following an “expressions of interest” process.
Conflict of Interest
Each member of the Design Review Panel has the duty to advise of any conflict of interest with respect to all projects being reviewed by the Panel. In this regard, the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act will apply and the panel member shall decline to participate in the review of that project.
Filming
- The filming of private development projects for which a Planning Act application has not yet been submitted (ie pre-application review) requires the prior written consent of the developer or an agent acting on their behalf. The filming of pre-application consultations without this consent will not be permitted.
- Persons interested in making an electronic record of Panel proceedings (audio and/or film) are requested to contact the Design Review Panel coordinator 1 week prior to the meeting in order to confirm these details.
- Failure to contact the Design Review Panel coordinator in advance of the meeting may result in interested persons not being permitted to film Panel proceedings.
Meeting Schedule
The Design Review Panel meets up to 15 times per year, excluding the month of August. Meetings and are held during regular business hours, and the Panel undertakes up to four separate project reviews each meeting.
Details of each meeting, including agenda and meeting location, are advertised on the internet in advance of each meeting. All meetings of the Panel are open to the public, however the Panel may at times need to meet in-camera to ensure legal confidentiality is maintained during the review of certain proposals.
Meeting dates and locations are posted here.
Meeting Procedures
Procedures for the Pilot Project have been developed through a review of best practices and through consultation with various stakeholders, including members of the public, the development industry, design professions and City of Toronto divisions. Participation in meetings of the Design Review Panel is as follows:
- Proponent Participation
The proponent and their team are encouraged to participate in the Panel’s review sessions in order to present their project to the Panel and to hear the advice provided from its members. It is also an opportunity for the proponent to hear a presentation from City Planning staff, who will describe the project’s planning and physical context, and ask the Panel for advice on particular matters relating to it.
The proponent’s design consultant is encouraged to participate in the review session by making a presentation, answering questions of clarification and listening to the Panel’s review. If the Proponent does not wish to attend, Staff may seek the advice of the Panel without the proponent’s participation.
For a more detailed outline of the proponent's participation in the Design Review Panel process, please e-mail a request to: designreviewpanel@toronto.ca
- City Staff Participation
Planning staff liaise with proponents to ensure that applications are scheduled for review at the appropriate time: ideally, the first review occurs early in the process during pre-consultation, with the second review taking place after refinements to the application have been made.
Community Planning and Urban Design staff attend the Panel meetings, where they present the project’s planning and physical context, and ask the Panel for advice on particular matters relating to it. Staff then evaluate the advice of the DRP in the context of other planning issues and considerations, and work with the applicant as the project evolves further.
- Public Participation
Citizen input on development applications remains unchanged by the process of Design Review, and is sought through public consultation meetings, charettes, working groups which are typically arranged by Community Planning staff and/or the local Councillor. While meetings of the Design Review Panel are held in public, there is no opportunity for members of the public to ask questions or to make a deputation during these meetings. The public nature of the meetings in intended to integrate an additional level of transparency into process, while also contributing to public education about design of the public realm.
Record of Meetings
Design Review Panel Minutes are the official record of all Panel meetings. Minutes are comprised of two sections. The first section, prepared by the Panel Chair, is a summary of the Panel's key points of consensus. The second section, prepared by City Planning staff, is a summary of the full discussion. Minutes are not intended to be a verbatim representation of the discussion of proceedings and as such, electronic devices are not used to record the meeting discussion.
Minutes are confirmed at the following meeting of the Design Review Panel. Minutes can be confirmed at any time during the meeting, at the discretion of the Chair, provided there are sufficient members to form quorum. The process to confirm or amend the minutes will be generally in accordance with conventional rules of order. In voting to adopt the minutes, the Panel is providing an indication that the document is representative of the discussion which took place at the meeting.
Proponents do not have the opportunity to request any changes to the minutes.
Once minutes have been confirmed, they are considered a public document and can be distributed to interested parties. All Minutes are available on the City of Toronto website.
Open and Closed Meetings
The City takes a number of steps to ensure the highest degree of openness and transparency for meetings of the Design Review Panel:
- All Panel meeting dates are posted on the City's website
- Agendas are posted to the web prior to each Panel meeting
- Minutes are posted to the web as soon as possible after they have been endorsed by the Panel.
- Meetings of the Design Review Panel are normally held in public
Sometimes it may be necessary to close a meeting to the public so the Panel can consider confidential information. For example, a Panel meeting may be closed to consider information that falls into one of the following exceptions:
- Issues affecting security of the City’s property
- Review of plans and drawings which will form part of a competitive tender
- Litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals
- The meeting is held for the purpose of educating or training the members and no business is advanced
Before holding a closed session
Before holding a closed session, the Design Review Panel will state by resolution that it is going to close the meeting and the general nature of the matter to be discussed.
During a closed session
- Minutes of the closed session will be taken.
After a closed session
- Panel Members will maintain confidentiality about the confidential information until the public release of information is authorized.
- Staff and the Panel Chair will prepare confidential minutes of the closed session. Minutes will be stored in a secure location until the public release of information is authorized.
Additional Information
For additional information relating to the Design Review Panel , including meeting minutes, staff reports, and other resources, please visit www.toronto.ca/planning/designreviewpanel.htm or e-mail designreviewpanel@toronto.ca.
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