INSIDE CITY HALL
Councillors march to condo king's tune
JOHN BARBER
jbarber@globeandmail.com
November 11, 2008
His family company has built tens of thousands of apartments over six decades of activity in Toronto, but Tridel Corporation president Leo Del Zotto had never once appeared at City Hall before he arrived at executive committee yesterday to plead for a break on behalf of a beleaguered industry.
Perhaps "plead" is the wrong word. One might just as fairly say that Mr. Del Zotto dictated what the mayor and council must do to keep the housing industry alive as its dark night descends. They snapped to attention and obeyed, voting to delay implementation of an already gutted plan to hike the fees that stand in for a municipal tax on the industry.
"Condominiums have been a cash cow for the city of Toronto. You can't go and take the feed away from the front end," Mr. Del Zotto told reporters after his successful intervention. "You take the feed away from the trough and you're going to have less milk, and the milk is building the backbone of Toronto."
Perhaps "trough" was the wrong word there, in view of the dissident opinion - emerging not from council's left but its right wing - that developers are already taking massive advantage of municipal largesse. Councillor Cliff Jenkins made the forlorn case for a crippling fee hike in the face of sagging demand, but the majority leftists would have none of it.
"I believe I'm on your side," Mr. Del Zotto said, and they lined right up behind him - joining the mayor in setting aside city staff advice to orchestrate a cautious, staged introduction of higher development charges.
Mayor David Miller had already declared himself on the issue, rejecting an early proposal for immediate increases in favour of a compromise scheme that would have linked fee hikes with development activity - with the result that none would apply in a flat market. Yesterday, he agreed to delay the compromise until Mr. Del Zotto and his colleagues, helped by their own researchers, come up with a plan more to their liking.
Provincial legislation permits fee hikes, the mayor noted. "But that doesn't mean you are required to impose them."
Mr. Del Zotto makes a compelling case for support, meshing it with official policies aimed at forestalling sprawl and building population through redevelopment. High-density, free-market housing is the only type on offer in Toronto today, he noted, and four out of five of such units are built inside city limits.
"You want to push your costs up, you want to front-end load, then what you're doing is saying, 'Let's get rid of this 80 per cent share of condominiums that we have and ship it out to the green pastures,'" he said, adding that suburban politicians "would love to have you send them the gift of future buyers."
"Thank you very much then for all the environmental commitment that the city is making. Leave the brown field and go build in another green field."
Condominium construction generates a significant number of jobs in itself, he added, and the result has served downtown employers by salting the core with workers. "You have a chance to keep those high taxes on those office buildings because you bring the labour pool to them," Mr. Del Zotto said.
Such reasoning will have more force if the local housing market continues its current trajectory, with or without the help of higher fees. But this council, the most pro-development in memory, needs little further persuasion. The boss has spoken.
Councillors march to condo king's tune
JOHN BARBER
jbarber@globeandmail.com
November 11, 2008
His family company has built tens of thousands of apartments over six decades of activity in Toronto, but Tridel Corporation president Leo Del Zotto had never once appeared at City Hall before he arrived at executive committee yesterday to plead for a break on behalf of a beleaguered industry.
Perhaps "plead" is the wrong word. One might just as fairly say that Mr. Del Zotto dictated what the mayor and council must do to keep the housing industry alive as its dark night descends. They snapped to attention and obeyed, voting to delay implementation of an already gutted plan to hike the fees that stand in for a municipal tax on the industry.
"Condominiums have been a cash cow for the city of Toronto. You can't go and take the feed away from the front end," Mr. Del Zotto told reporters after his successful intervention. "You take the feed away from the trough and you're going to have less milk, and the milk is building the backbone of Toronto."
Perhaps "trough" was the wrong word there, in view of the dissident opinion - emerging not from council's left but its right wing - that developers are already taking massive advantage of municipal largesse. Councillor Cliff Jenkins made the forlorn case for a crippling fee hike in the face of sagging demand, but the majority leftists would have none of it.
"I believe I'm on your side," Mr. Del Zotto said, and they lined right up behind him - joining the mayor in setting aside city staff advice to orchestrate a cautious, staged introduction of higher development charges.
Mayor David Miller had already declared himself on the issue, rejecting an early proposal for immediate increases in favour of a compromise scheme that would have linked fee hikes with development activity - with the result that none would apply in a flat market. Yesterday, he agreed to delay the compromise until Mr. Del Zotto and his colleagues, helped by their own researchers, come up with a plan more to their liking.
Provincial legislation permits fee hikes, the mayor noted. "But that doesn't mean you are required to impose them."
Mr. Del Zotto makes a compelling case for support, meshing it with official policies aimed at forestalling sprawl and building population through redevelopment. High-density, free-market housing is the only type on offer in Toronto today, he noted, and four out of five of such units are built inside city limits.
"You want to push your costs up, you want to front-end load, then what you're doing is saying, 'Let's get rid of this 80 per cent share of condominiums that we have and ship it out to the green pastures,'" he said, adding that suburban politicians "would love to have you send them the gift of future buyers."
"Thank you very much then for all the environmental commitment that the city is making. Leave the brown field and go build in another green field."
Condominium construction generates a significant number of jobs in itself, he added, and the result has served downtown employers by salting the core with workers. "You have a chance to keep those high taxes on those office buildings because you bring the labour pool to them," Mr. Del Zotto said.
Such reasoning will have more force if the local housing market continues its current trajectory, with or without the help of higher fees. But this council, the most pro-development in memory, needs little further persuasion. The boss has spoken.
