apmYYZ
New Member
They've been doing some work along Jopling this past week. Appears to be the installation of underground lines but I'm not too sure.
From today
Still no demo yet but I can't imagine these are going to be standing past the summer.View attachment 385749View attachment 385750View attachment 385748
That is very interesting. The SIPA rules on demolishing residential are hard fought and the City does not like to allow anything through, even if it means we must keep dilapidated fire traps everywhere. The only way I can see this happening is if the developer were engaged with the Councillor behind the scenes somehow.
I know, for example, the folks at Lifetime are pulling their hair out because the City won't let them do anything with these gems on River before they pull a permit (they are flooded, moldy, broken into, have been on fire, and are generally very much not safe). But the City, high and mighty, are basically just saying 'that's your problem, you know the rules':
The first one would require an entire rework of the finance system that exists for residential development. We rely on deposits for a lot of the early stage work, and banks will only lend the construction loan once you're 70% sold. Canada is either famous or notorious (depending on your perspective) for it's extremely conservative banking culture, any they're the folks you would have to convince of such a change. From their perspective though, I do understand that they want / need confidence in something before lending out $150M+ for a project. Adi, for example, need not apply.How would you feel about swapping out the current burdensome rules for either of:
a) No pre-construction sales (so you can only sell or rent a finished product with an occupancy permit in hand)
b) Use it or lose it zoning; a concept in which any rezoning has an expiry date. This is currently being tested in more than one jurisdiction in the U.S. Expiry at 2-5 years after approval.
Either of these arguably provides every incentive to get moving, as there would be no revenue until completion in case 1, and in case 2, any delay could see you forfeit your entitlement entirely eating millions, at the risk you might not get the same approval again.
I see merits and downsides in both, in varying degrees. I think the virtue in this specific instance is that idea of removing burdensome bureaucracy for simplicity.