New Rogers Brampton Campus (Rogers, ?, ?)

[TOareaFan]

Yeah, I watched it too. I was hoping there would be a bit more discussion and questions from council, especially after the Williams Parkway sound wall item before it. MZOs should be rare events, and I don’t know why Rogers suddenly had a need to rush this.

But they had a strong endorsement from the Downtown BIA, from the New Brampton lobby group, and a briefing note that basically said “go for it.” Given the struggles to support the downtown core over the years, but now a flurry of development proposals (mostly residential), it’s not the location that would be controversial.

It’s above board, at least – it was in an open session of Council, with the staff briefing note made public (which is unusual).

But yeah, I would have liked more discussion on the Dixie Road lands.

I read your very good summary on it and I think you and I are in agreement....there is absolutely nothing wrong with what is going on, or proposed, for the site in DT (although the "rush' is interesting as that piece of dirt crossed my desk several times over the past 20 years or so and nothing seemed to happen...leading to me making a bold prediction once that seemed to be coming true but now may not)....if you were whiteboarding what was needed and where Rogers should be, this is certainly what most would come up with.....it is "good".

As a near 50 year resident of Brampton who has never lived in the DT, though, the disrespect that anything not "DT" gets is just annoying.....as the DT site is the obvious logical conclusion that fits with a long term stated goal you could argue that "no discussion needed here" applied...but the Dixie site has never been talked about in terms of residential and the impact on streets/residents on Balmoral, Braemar, Birchbank will be noticeable....and yes, there is a long time before we get "unit counts" but the rezoning is gonna get done and by then the amount of community input will be limited. I suspect that the "rush" for this one is that the money brought in (either via a j/v or outright sale) from Rogers with the new zoning in place is what is going to be used to build the DT campus (and some).

I was also a bit confused by the one delegator who talked about building a new bus garage at the site....the city would be bidding against very stiff competition for that site and I am not sure the money is there. Q4 numbers are in and all metrics in industrial space continue to skyrocket.....availability rates are down to around 1.8%...national average rental rates are approaching $10.50 psf net (they only hit $10 for the first time in history in Q3) and cap rates are down and valuations are up. This will end up being, likely, one very large single (maybe two) tenant warehouse/logistics space.

 

[ShonTron]

I read your very good summary on it and I think you and I are in agreement....there is absolutely nothing wrong with what is going on, or proposed, for the site in DT (although the "rush' is interesting as that piece of dirt crossed my desk several times over the past 20 years or so and nothing seemed to happen...leading to me making a bold prediction once that seemed to be coming true but now may not)....if you were whiteboarding what was needed and where Rogers should be, this is certainly what most would come up with.....it is "good".

As a near 50 year resident of Brampton who has never lived in the DT, though, the disrespect that anything not "DT" gets is just annoying.....as the DT site is the obvious logical conclusion that fits with a long term stated goal you could argue that "no discussion needed here" applied...but the Dixie site has never been talked about in terms of residential and the impact on streets/residents on Balmoral, Braemar, Birchbank will be noticeable....and yes, there is a long time before we get "unit counts" but the rezoning is gonna get done and by then the amount of community input will be limited. I suspect that the "rush" for this one is that the money brought in (either via a j/v or outright sale) from Rogers with the new zoning in place is what is going to be used to build the DT campus (and some).

I was also a bit confused by the one delegator who talked about building a new bus garage at the site....the city would be bidding against very stiff competition for that site and I am not sure the money is there. Q4 numbers are in and all metrics in industrial space continue to skyrocket.....availability rates are down to around 1.8%...national average rental rates are approaching $10.50 psf net (they only hit $10 for the first time in history in Q3) and cap rates are down and valuations are up. This will end up being, likely, one very large single (maybe two) tenant warehouse/logistics space.

That delegator you speak of is very active on Twitter and sometimes logs on to UT.

 

[Northern Light]

The Star chiming in with a substantial piece on this one.

The focus is very much questioning the use of MZOs and, in particular a very negative take on Mayor Brown which certainly infers an over-use of same for questionable reasons.

A $100M Rogers downtown office with 3,000 staff will be a game changer but why shut Brampton out of planning it?

When Rogers decided to build a new office in downtown Brampton, municipal officials sidestepped the traditional planning process that ensured locals got a direct say.

www.thestar.com

Article is paywalled at time of posting.

Excerpts below:

"The provincial government, under Doug Ford’s leadership, and the City of Brampton, under Mayor Patrick Brown, have pushed through a series of MZOs, which were previously rarely used, as they are only intended for extreme circumstances when a development permit has to be expedited to address something like unexpected damage due to a natural disaster or to avoid a severe economic loss........ The two requests council endorsed Wednesday, forwarding them to Queen’s Park on behalf of Rogers, were the eighth and ninth MZO proposals supported by Brampton since late-September."

Of Brown:

"His refusal to make capital investments, in favour of keeping taxes down, has thrown numerous downtown plans up in the air, including the Centre For Innovation, the revitalization plan and the Riverwalk vision, to reshape the Etobicoke Creek corridor while finally addressing downtown flooding issues.

Instead, major investments have been pulled, postponed or cancelled, while potential developments in the floodplain have been hard to pursue due to restrictions that can’t be lifted until money for major flood mitigation is committed."

*****

A suggestion is made that City Planning staff are not as enthusiastic about the use of MZOs as has been suggested:

"Brampton’s latest MZO requests come a week after Councillor Martin Medeiros, who is chair of the City’s planning committee, confirmed municipal planning staff were uncomfortable with council’s reliance on the planning tool being pushed by Brown, his PC Party associates and developers, which often cuts municipalities out from many of their usual planning responsibilities.

“I will say [in] public, on-record, staff has advised council many times [that] they’re not really in favour of MZOs themselves, they really want to go through the planning process,” he said last week. Medeiros, who is one of the few councillors to confront criticism of Brampton’s MZO requests head-on, framed the City’s reliance on them as a political decision to advance economic opportunities and increase the housing supply."

*****

Finally, Canadian Tire and Choice are apparently objecting to the potential rezoning of their lands under an MZO (this one?, not clear in the article); they describe this as being 'blindsided'.

 

[TOareaFan]

The Star chiming in with a substantial piece on this one.



Finally, Canadian Tire and Choice are apparently objecting to the potential rezoning of their lands under an MZO (this one?, not clear in the article); they describe this as being 'blindsided'.

Canadian Tire and Choice are objecting to the MZO that has been requested for the lands on the North West quadrant of Steeles and Bramalea (across from the GO station) but which also encompasses (not sure why, never read it) their lands on the SouthWest.

 

[TOareaFan]

Canadian Tire and Choice are objecting to the MZO that has been requested for the lands on the North West quadrant of Steeles and Bramalea (across from the GO station) but which also encompasses (not sure why, never read it) their lands on the SouthWest.

These lands...the pink stripy bits are not owned by the proponent and people are wondering why they asked, and the city agreed, to include them.

GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Fun fact: one of my friends that has lived in Brampton for 20+ years didn't know that there was a train to downtown Toronto. So they always drove downtown or to the subway at finch. I don't find that surprising at all. The terminus for future 15 min service barely even touches the core of...

urbantoronto.ca

 

[sixrings]

Canadian Tire and Choice are objecting to the MZO that has been requested for the lands on the North West quadrant of Steeles and Bramalea (across from the GO station) but which also encompasses (not sure why, never read it) their lands on the SouthWest.

Maybe Canadian tire should just build their main office here and abandon their yonge and eglinton location.

 

[TOareaFan]

Maybe Canadian tire should just build their main office here and abandon their yonge and eglinton location.

I think they enjoy having a logistics facility/warehouse at this location.

 

[ShonTron]

Though Rogers is seeking this land, work continued on the Metrolinx parking lot, including new light standards and surveillance cameras. A waste, as GO Transit ridership is still quite low and its secondary lots are still closed off to commuters. By the time GO needs the parking capacity, I suspect Rogers will start construction.

 

[Allandale25]