A Generic Model to Expedite the Development Process in Municipalities

Abstract

Expediting the urban development process in order to offset opportunity costs resulting from bureaucratic delays and concurrently protect the interests of the community is one of the major Economic Development Professional's (EDPs) challenges.
This article reviews four municipalities and addresses this issue by: a) evaluating and analyzing four municipal models which expedite the development process, b) by conducting and analyzing a questionnaire survey in order to provide further insight into the problems associated with the development process, c) by identifying several key factors of a generic model that expedite the development process. Timing, effectiveness, and client satisfaction are key factors of the generic model which can be adjusted to fit any municipality. The Generic Model identifies the need for the creation of and the commitment to a Council policy to expedite the development process. The Chief Administrative Officer as chair would be to set up a “Development Review Team” whose primary objective is to fulfill the municipality’s corporate goal. The members of the Team should be the key participants from the department involved in the development approval process. The role of the EDP is to demonstrate to Council the need for a Development Review Team to help them achieve their corporate objectives. The following is a summary of the author’s research paper presented to the University of Waterloo in partial fulfillment of the research requirements for the degree of Masters of Applied Environmental Studies (M.A.E.S.) in Industrial Development. The published paper can be sourced by contacting the author directly or the University of Waterloo Library.