Mike in TO
Senior Member
By the logic of the OMB, what is there to prevent a progressive erosion of the remaining 3.3 million sq. ft. of office development left? How can it draw the line between acceptable erosion (which is what it is supporting now) and unacceptable ones - especially in light of the argument that because of limited enforcement of policies, that there is now practically no reason to enforce them at all?
Time to ignore the OMB.
AoD - here's some more detail on the decision:
The site is located within the North York Central Secondary Plan. The secondary plan encourages employment-oriented development in the southern portion of the plan area, with residential sites in the north. According to Michael Goldberg (Goldberg Group), who testified on behalf of Menkes, the site is not located in an employment area or district and therefore restrictions placed on employment area conversions should not apply.
City planners testified against the appeal, stating that housing growth in the city exceeds job growth. Any re-designation of the site, according to city planners, should be minor, in accordance with requirements contained within the secondary plan. The area’s function, according to the planners, would be negatively affected by residential development on this particular site.
The board insisted that while policies may encourage offices in the south section of the secondary plan area, the city has not always enforced these policies in full.
“In addition, the city’s past actions did not reflect an urgency to favour office-commercial growth in the south as expressed at this hearing,” the board decision states. “At the north-west corner of Yonge and Sheppard, the city approved a 20-year lease for a one storey 10,000 sq.ft. of retail development on a site which could have accommodated some 614,000 sq.ft. of commercial-office space…In addition, at the 5000 Yonge Street site, the city allowed over 500,000 sq.ft. of office-commercial space to be converted
to residential usage.”
The board noted that such developments did not compromise the function of the secondary plan area. Market and economics expert Douglas Annand
(urbanMetrics Inc.) testified on behalf of Menkes, estimating that 4.7-million-sq.ft. of office space could be developed in the area if the proposed residential re-designation is approved. Annand noted that the area’s demand for office space between now and 2031 would not exceed 3.7-million-sq.ft.
Lee Parsons (Malone Given Parsons), the city’s market and economics expert, testified that approximately 3.3-million-sq.ft. of office space could be developed if 5170 Yonge Street was occupied by the proposed residential towers. Parsons’ estimate for future office space demand far exceeded that of Annand, projecting that by 2031 demand will reach 6.1-million-sq.ft.