I missed this when the City announced it May 9th (there are still no RSS newsroom feeds), the City launched a new web-based service to access the Development applications that are in process with the City. The Development Search feature allows you to search based on area, ward, street, or using keywords for things like:

• Official Plan Amendments, and Zoning By-law Amendments,
• Plan of Subdivision and Site Plan Control applications,
• Cash in Lieu of Parking, Lifting of Holding Provisions,
• and Demolition Control

All supporting documentation is available (Site plans, Environmental Assessments, etc.), and there is also a form that can be used to contact the appropriate Planners. This is a big step forward, and definitely improves the accessibility and access to this information.

Of course, there’s still room for improvements, simple things like

• being able to subscribe to a RSS feed of all application updates, or RSS updates to a specific  application that might impact you.
• Being able to comment publicly (as well as privately to the Planner) would reduce duplicate inquiries to the Planning Department and encourage more dialogue around applications. While not everyone can attend planning meetings, everyone can share their comments in an open forum.
• A high-level Google/Yahoo! map with the locations of the developments marked would provide a quicker route to finding developments in relevant areas.
• Exposing what is already (supposedly) public data in a raw accessible form (XML or JSON would be fine) would further allow us to build interesting tools and mashups (and many of the aforementioned features) with this data without resorting to screenscraping - and without incurring presumeably more consulting fees.

While its not quite the Web2.0 type stuff Mayor Larry was touting six months ago, the City’s new Development Application Search is a good start, and hopefully we will start to see some more openness leak out around the edges. Congrats to the team at the City that have brought it this far.

If you’re a local developer interested in perhaps working towards a more open approach to these tools, get in touch in the comments - I’ve got a few prototypes in the works, and would love to bounce some ideas around.