Interesting article by John Barber on the approval process of 4 Seasons vs. affordable housing, from the Globe:
The hotel prince and the Sister Act
JOHN BARBER
Committee Room No. 1 was all aflutter when Isadore Sharp himself descended from the corporate heavens to mingle with the crowd of concerned, sometimes confused and often crazy citizens usually found in that august chamber, where they fretfully petition the civic sachems on matters both great and small.
Courtly, urbane and ever so slightly condescending, encased in a virtual cocoon of finely tailored functionaries, the chairman of Four Seasons Hotels honoured all by unveiling in person his crowning glory as a world-beating Toronto boy: the glittering towers of the newest Four Seasons Hotel and luxury housing development, to adorn a currently shabby site on Bay Street north of Yorkville Avenue.
This prince even submitted to questions from Councillor Michael Walker, who needled him about the new project's grand disregard for the height and density limits that apply to its site, and generally sullied the whole affair with impertinent suggestions of profiteering.
But neither his nor any other, more seemly carping stalled the five-star progress of the new Four Seasons that day. The height limits were shattered and the zoning concerns crumbled as the proposal swept to approval. Not one storey disappeared.
On the same day and at the same time, way across town in the Politburo-like strangeness of the Scarborough Civic Centre's old council chambers, Sister Margaret Myatt confronted an entirely unfriendly mood among a different group of civic dignitaries gathered there for an identical purpose.
But it was nothing new to her. As familiar in such surroundings as Mr. Sharp is distinctive, the placid but determined General Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph has spent the past six years battling hostile local politicians and their constituents in order to gain approval for the exact opposite of the new Four Seasons: an affordable housing project, currently comprising a few dozen semi-detached houses, to be built on surplus city-owned land just south of Lawrence Avenue East in West Hill -- a two-storey development that wouldn't break any rules at all.
And every time she tries, she loses. Every advantage, including the support of Mayor David Miller and the services of the same Bay Street law firm retained by Mr. Sharp, goes for naught. Every victory vanishes in an ever-renewing flood of meetings, studies, consultations and, inevitably, concessions.
The record of Sister Margaret's activities as chair of the Women's Religious Project, the group proposing the development, is punctuated by an almost comical descending scale of housing units proposed for the project, with every new meeting or report resulting in a smaller number provisionally permitted. What began as a city-backed proposal for 119 owner-occupied houses is now a proposal for 68, which the city itself is doing everything it can to frustrate and delay on behalf of hostile neighbours.
Although Scarborough community council knocked off another eight houses last week, Sister Margaret is determined to ask city council later this month for the "full" 68 -- a risky strategy considering her record so far.
When will the houses ever be built?
"Oh, who knows," she replied cheerfully. "I don't think anybody knows at this point. I've given up predicting, because every time we think something's going to happen, something else intervened."
She certainly never planned to spend six years at it. "I was naive enough to think that we could do something in a year and a half or two years," she said. "That was in my youth."
Nothing in this business distinguishes Sister Margaret and Mr. Sharp more tellingly than the official commentary on their coincidental projects. The planning report recommending approval of the Four Seasons project, virtually the first and the last word on this precedent-busting development, is 47 pages. The latest report outlining the difficulties of adding a few semis to residential land in Scarborough zoned for precisely that use, which crowns literally dozens of earlier reports on the same project, is 52 pages.
The report on the affordable housing makes much of neighbourhood concerns, which range from the potential loss of bat habitat (leading to increased risk of West Nile disease, according to residents) to the usual falderal about parking and traffic. Despite airing every silly complaint in detail, it recorded no local residents expressing opposition to affordable housing per se.
Their overall assault was above all that. "The association's position is that the site should remain in a natural state and that any development on this site is inappropriate, resulting in a negative impact on the community," the planners reported.
Among the many reasons city planners advanced in recommending quick approval of the Four Seasons project, on the other hand, is that it is so attractively unaffordable. As a condition of approval, they assured politicians and public alike, "the owner will be required to demonstrate that the hotel is intended to be operated in a manner consistent with luxury hotels awarded a "Five Star" rating in the Mobile [sic] Travel Guide."
Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the entire negotiation was the applicant's last-minute offer of an amazing $2-million to a local public school, in return for the right to cast morning shadows on part of its playground. The Four Seasons project did come under attack from some important people making pointed arguments about the extraordinary concessions it obtained, but nobody paid attention.
This is the part of the story where the moral is supposed to be, but I can't find it. The obvious ones are too simple. Perhaps Sister Margaret and Mr. Sharp -- both of them highly admirable and capable people, with proven commitment to the community -- will be able to work one out if they happen to bump into each other at city hall later this month.
AoD