The Benefits of Pre-Consultation

Pre-Consultation is the first point of contact between a developer and the city. These meetings may be seen as simply getting a checklist of studies required, so you are paying only for the studies you need.

LandPro views Pre-Consultation as an inexpensive way to negotiate the requirements for the application with the city itself. In other words, we see them as a discussion towards reducing/eliminating certain studies. So, Pre-Con is a discussion with the city rather than being informed by the city.

What is Pre-Consultation?

If you’re thinking about developing a property, you may not have heard of Pre-Consultation (Pre-Con) before. Pre-Con is a formal meeting with the city to discuss your project before you go through the application process. Most cities actually require it before an application is made.

What to expect:

• FORMAT: Typically virtual with an in-person option, depending on the city

• TIME: Normally 30 minutes to 1 hour 

• LEAD: LandPro (Planner) normally leads with the developer being present

• ATTENDANCE: Developer/applicant

• Developers team:

• Planner, engineer (others if needed)

• City departments: 

• Planning; Engineering; Building; EMS

• Others:

• Conservation Authority

• FOCUS: Present your development idea to the city, receiving comments from various departments on their technical needs for this application. 

• RECORD: Pre-Consultation notes are provided that document all comments and requirements

• TIME LIMIT: Usually has an expiration date of 1 year. 

• COST:$300 to $2,000 in City fees, depending on the municipality

The finished project should not differ much from what was presented at Pre-Con; otherwise, another meeting may be required.

Benefits of Pre-Consultation

There are a few reasons we recommend attending a Pre-Con meeting for most projects.

1. New information about the property. For example, we once learned that a property had a different zone than what was posted online because the municipality hadn’t updated its records yet. It’s a good thing we learned that then, before writing a report and applying for something unnecessary!

2. A written record of the studies required to achieve your development goals. It is very common for applications to require several studies. It’s equally important for these requirements to be in writing. When you’re spending lots of money on development, you need to know what’s required. LandPro relies on written notes to form the technical team for our clients.

3. Identify potential issues for your project, early. We prefer to know city issues before asking you to spend money to address them. We’ve had more than a few clients come to us because they tried to fast-track the development process and got themselves into a tough situation. It turns out that knowing all potential issues right from the beginning can help plan your project effectively and make its viability much more likely.

4. Key insight and advice for your project. One city offered to allow an additional lot in our client’s subdivision application because of several factors. Had our client not attended Pre-Con, they would’ve ended up with less development potential! Another city offered key insights that changed the form of development.

5. Convenient and save time & money. They are typically virtual, and many municipalities will put the Pre-Con fee towards your future application.

Timing/Speed. If you submit an application withoutgoing to Pre-Con, the city may reject your application as “incomplete” because some studies were not done. This will cause undue delays and potentially extra fees if you need to re-apply in the future.

Benefits of Having LandPro at your Pre-Con

There are several benefits to having LandPro or a planner at Pre-Con:

• We can help translate the “Planner-ese” jargon. What is a Hydro-G study? A traffic impact brief? What’s an FSR? Contact MTO? Don’t panic; we understand the lingo and can help.

• We know which questions to ask. Why is that study necessary? Can we combine applications? How do the new laws affect this proposal? It’s our job to clarify the project for both you and the municipality, to ensure you’re doing only what’s actually required.

• We can be aware of all things discussed, not just those recorded in the Pre-Con Comments. Sometimes we have clients come to us after they have attended a Pre-Con by themselves. More often than not, we aren’t given all the important information because it wasn’t recorded in the comments, and the client didn’t remember or didn’t know it was important. The more information we have, the better Planners we can be for you.

We can provide a detailed concept plan and letter for the Pre-Con, to give the municipality a clear idea of the proposal. If the proposal is too vague or the municipality has too many unanswered questions, another Pre-Con will probably be necessary. It’s best to have a good idea of your project and to let us help with communicating that to the municipality.

Conclusion

Pre-Consultations are a great first step toward realizing your development goals. They are informative and save time and money for your municipality and you – everyone wins. 

Not only do we recommend attending Pre-Consultation for your next project, but we also especially recommend attending with your hired Planning Consultant. Our LandPro team has attended more of these meetings than we can count, and we want to help make sure your project gets started off on the right foot.