Urban Scribe

The planning desk for Ontario development

From postal code to municipal requirements, templates, and AI-drafted planning rationale—one workspace built for real Ontario applications.

How to use it

Six steps from a blank form to a downloadable report.

  1. 1

    Choose the municipality

    Pick the Ontario municipality your application is filed in. Every one of Ontario's local municipalities is available in a searchable dropdown.

  2. 2

    Enter the postal code

    Add the subject property's postal code. The format is validated as you type (A1A 1A1) and helps confirm the city when names overlap.

  3. 3

    Describe the project

    Give the project a name, the municipal address, and a short brief describing the proposal and the variances being requested.

  4. 4

    Pick a writing style

    Select Government (municipal staff report tone) or Private (planning consultant tone). The AI matches the conventions of that sector.

  5. 5

    Run the pipeline

    Watch the progress bar as Urban Scribe checks the municipality's requirements, builds the template, and drafts each section.

  6. 6

    Review and download

    The finished report appears inline. Download it as PDF, Word (.docx), or Markdown — the Word file opens cleanly in Word, Pages, and Google Docs.

Behind the scenes

When you run the pipeline, the progress bar walks through these stages. Each one is real work, not a placeholder animation.

01

Resolve the city

The postal code and your inputs resolve to the correct Ontario municipality and its planning website.

02

Collect requirements

Municipal planning sources are crawled and the report structure, checklist, and section requirements are extracted and cached.

03

Snapshot the project

Requirements are pinned to your project so the report reflects what the municipality asked for at the time of drafting.

04

Draft with AI

Each section is written by the model under a style prompt chosen for the selected sector, then assembled into one report.

How it writes

Reports follow Ontario Planning Act Section 45 minor variance analysis. You choose the voice; the structure stays consistent.

Government sector

Reads like a municipal staff report. Objective and analytical, each test closing with a paragraph that begins “Staff are of the opinion that…” The tone reflects whether staff support or oppose the application.

Private sector

Reads like a planning justification letter from a consultant. Supportive of the application, each test closing with “It is our opinion that…” and emphasizing positive planning rationale.

Every report covers the same eight sections

  1. 1.Subject Property and Area Context
  2. 2.Official Plan
  3. 3.Zoning
  4. 4.Related Applications
  5. 5.Do the proposed variances meet the general intent and purpose of the Official Plan?
  6. 6.Do the proposed variances meet the general intent and purpose of the Zoning By-law?
  7. 7.Are the proposed variances considered desirable for the appropriate development of the land?
  8. 8.Are the proposed variances considered minor in nature?

Each requested variance is analyzed in its own paragraph, language is kept practical rather than promotional, and the report avoids inventing site conditions that weren’t provided.

Ready to try it?

Run a free trial report in minutes, then sign up for full, downloadable reports.