Here is an article by Adam Giambrone from the January 19 issue of Now Magazine. It addresses some of the concerns I mentioned in my original post.
Toronto’s arrested development
HIGH ON THE CITY-BUILDING AGENDA IS THE NEED TO FIND A SOLUTION TO THE MEDDLING OF THE OMB
BY ADAM GIAMBRONE
Bet you didn’t know that T.O. now has more tall buildings under construction than all the rest of Canada combined; at 110, it’s more than any U.S. or European city.
Only some fast-growing metropolises with populations already four to five times our size have more construction activity. And we have the largest condo market in the developed world, celebrated in pop culture by artists like T-Pain, who sang, “I could put you in a condo… all the way up in Toronto†in his 2008 hit song Can’t Believe It.
But few are happy with the development review process. Builders complain of long delays and uncertain outcomes. And residents generally loathe the Ontario Municipal Board, the subject of a meeting at City Hall Monday, January 16, hosted by the Moore Park and Islington residents associations.
High on the agenda was the need to find a solution for the unaccountability of the OMB, a creature from a time when municipalities were small and citizens needed protection from abuse by local town councils. Today, however, the body works mainly to subvert the will of the broader community and its elected representatives.
Here’s one way the OMB affects local decisions. A big problem now is that we have Let’s Make A Deal planning, a consequence of unrealistic zoning that allows way too little density, creating a situation where almost every application for a new building must go through time-consuming and difficult rezoning.
(Many local politicians actually like this situation, since it lets them negotiate with builders to get Section 37 benefits for communities in exchange for denser – usually taller – developments.)
In other cities, the trick to getting an application approved is to invest in a good architect and an innovative, high-quality building. In Toronto, money goes instead to high-priced lawyers able to shepherd an application through the City Hall labyrinth and ultimately past the OMB.
This city’s status as one of the world’s most high-rise-oriented, especially for its size (compared to frontrunners like New York and Beijing), is a result of the OMB, which is unique to Ontario. No other Canadian province or U.S. state has a body that can routinely override local planning.
Council is currently considering changes to the Official Plan, but the existence of the OMB makes both bureaucrats and politicians reluctant to do what should be done to improve it. What should happen, in theory, is a review of the current allowable zoning to provide for more density. Realistically, this isn’t possible, because everyone is scared that higher allowable densities will just become the new minimum at the OMB.
While Toronto can’t unilaterally eliminate the OMB, it can set up review boards for local committee of adjustment decisions, a prerogative recently granted. (Adjustment committees are panels of locals appointed by council to deal with minor variances to zoning bylaws.)
Many at Monday’s meeting argued for putting such review boards in place to demonstrate to the province that the city could handle a review body to fully take the place of the OMB.
Then there’s the need to hire more planners to allow an overburdened department to do more long-term planning, be more responsive to the community and make sure applications are processed quickly.
One final way we could encourage neighbourhood-scale development would be to create a special expedited process for smaller-scale developments that today go through the same process as 45-storey, 500-unit condo buildings. This would cut the costs of low-scale development, ending the disincentive to build anything other than large structures.
The negative economics in building are all about the delay in starting construction. The builder has to pay the sunk cost of design and marketing for a project, but a big expense is the cost of tying up property, and construction inflation can run as high as 5 per cent while the developer waits for permission. On a large project, an extra six months’ delay can lead to millions of dollars of added costs.
We could also change the development fee structure to favour more low-rise development by making it more costly (on a per-unit basis) to build taller.
The Official Plan calls for up to 150,000 more people (125,000 units of various sizes) to live on the “avenues†– major streets like Sheppard, Bloor, Danforth and Kingston Road. Most of these are fairly close to stable residential neighbourhoods, so large towers are just not appropriate. But low-rise four-to-six-storey buildings with stores at street level would create more dynamic streets and house people in a more neighbourhood- and human-scale setting.
The development industry is an important component of our economy, creating 250,000 jobs directly and indirectly, and the success of our housing market generates wealth that can be reinvested in the city. The trick is clear up our density ideals, facilitate the permission process, encourage low-rise options – and defang the OMB.