Better planning for Toronto

Because so little land use planning has been done by City Hall in the last decade, neighbourhoods are besieged by developer-based initiatives which City Council seems powerless to contain. Inappropriate high-rise structures are raining down on communities where they don’t belong. Councillors say they support intensification and if they don’t approve these applications then the Ontario Municipal Board will anyway.

The city needs a new start in respect to planning and design. Here are five steps to be taken immediately.

1. Place an interim control bylaw on the sections of the city where the bulk of development is occurring – the Avenues, Regeneration Areas, and parts of the Central Core. The interim control bylaws should be for a period of two years, and generally should restrict development to structures no higher than 20 meters, that is 6 stories. This means that structures less than 20 meters high may proceed; higher than 20 meters, they may not proceed.

2. Undertake planning studies in each neighbourhood in a process which engages residents, community leaders, businesses, social agencies, and land owners. Plans should accommodate reasonable intensification to create a more lively and efficient city. Given the inexperience of city staff in these kinds of activities, it may be necessary to retain consultants to lead these studies. Studies should be presented to council within 14 moths.

3. In conjunction with new area plans, council should establish design review panels to advise on particular development projects. As the planning studies proceed, city council should engage in a process with architects, developers and community representatives to establish how the design review process will function. Design review should not be implemented until plans are in place in order to ensure that the structures within which architects are expected to design buildings are known.

4. Establish methods of ensuring a mix of units, sizes and affordability in new housing. Recent years have seen many thousands of new condominium units constructed in the city: most are small units, one and two bedrooms, and given what is know of many apartment units built in the 1960s , they will be the crowded sums of the future. Toronto needs a diversity of new housing units, both in size and costs. Policies must be established to achieve these objectives. City Council must retain consultants to report how this can be done so appropriate polices re put in place.

5. City Council must rethink its fee structure for planning services. Currently, the fee for making an Official Plan amendment application is $10,000 – no wonder city staff seem unable to say no to these applications. The city planners should not be required to be paid from the applications they process. Planning should be a city service paid out of city taxes, not application fees.

November 7. 2006.