If I Was A Developer I Would Tell Toronto

To go to hell and spend my $$$$$ outside the city. The city has shown a number of times, island bridge, union station renovations, etc., that they do not honor their commitments and it is you and I, the property owners, who pay the legal fees and fines. People like the artistes, waterfront condo owners, island squatters, etc. are running the city.

City, province not in sync, builders say
Queen's Park and Toronto seem to have different visions for growth
February 24, 2007
Theresa Boyle
Real Estate Reporter

The City of Toronto's efforts to scuttle three controversial developments on West Queen West show it's out of sync with the province's growth strategy, developers argue.

"There's a disconnect between what the province's plans for growth are ... and what municipalities are willing to accept," said Michael Moldenhauer, first vice-president of the newly merged Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association-Urban Development Institute.

In a meeting with the Star's editorial board last week, Moldenhauer said developers have been forced to comply with Ontario's growth and greenbelt strategies, even though the legislation is not something they welcomed. The Places to Grow strategy, passed in legislation two years ago, requires that at least 40 per cent of any new development in the Greater Golden Horseshoe be in areas that are already built-up.

The Greenbelt Act, companion legislation that was passed around the same time, restricts development on the 720,000-hectare arc of moraine, escarpment and open countryside from Niagara to Peterborough.

The strategies are about intensification, building up and containing urban sprawl.

"It's not what we wanted. We didn't want the province to be in the planning business. But we got it because we've been forced to get it," Moldenhauer said.

Now it's time for municipalities to get it too, he argued. "The sooner that councils get exposed to what the reality is, the sooner we can educate the public at large as to what the reality is. Then we'll all be on the same page."

The Ontario Municipal Board last month ruled in favour of three condominium developments on Queen between Dovercourt and Gladstone. Council voted earlier this month to challenge that decision by going to court, asking the OMB to reconsider its approval and asking the province to set aside the OMB's ruling.

Residents in the area are opposed to the developments, arguing they will destroy the neighbourhood's artistic community.

Moldenhauer said it's fine for ratepayer groups to come up with plans for how they would like to see their neighbourhoods developed. But those plans should jibe with the province's plans, which seek to accommodate the four million people expected to move to southern Ontario in the next 25 years, he added.

"From a building standpoint, we would encourage a vision from communities of what they'd like to see, as long as the vision is aligned with what the province's vision is," Moldenhauer said.

He pointed out that people generally like the concept of intensification until it comes to their neighbourhood. "We buy into it, just as long as you don't put it right beside my house," he said, echoing an oft-heard sentiment.

Neil Rodgers, vice-president of policy and government relations for the home builders' association, said the city's attempts to overturn the decision are futile and costly.

"In staff reports, the city's own legal staff has said they will probably lose all their routes of appeal," he remarked.

Rodgers noted a proposal to build a seven-storey condo at Avenue Rd. and Lawrence is also headed to the OMB, with the city and residents opposed to it. "In the course of a couple of weeks, the city has spent, probably in two cases where they will lose, about half a million dollars. I didn't think we had that kind of money lying around City Hall."

The residents' organization opposed to the West Queen West development is sophisticated and has put up a high-profile battle, he said. "I think there is a vocal minority who are influential with the arts community," he said, citing architect and urban designer Ken Greenberg.

"There's a bit of what I like to call urban intelligentsia who are leading this debate. They are attracting attention from all corners."

Every few years there are cases that go before the OMB that "get a status unlike another others," Rodgers noted. Before West Queen West, there was the controversial Minto Towers project at Yonge and Eglinton, which was approved and will soon be occupied.

What's getting lost in the West Queen West battle is the plan to incorporate 190 new affordable housing units, he charged.

"It's frustrating from an industry perspective. Why aren't we celebrating the 190 units of affordable housing that would be built on that project? That has been lost in all of the newsprint."