Zoning Reform Ideas

[rdaner]

Cambridge is latest to receive Housing Accelerator funds. This is a pleasant surprise as the city has a reputation of being a little slow on higher density development. This may put the % of Ontario’s population at 4 units/lot at close to 60%.

 

[afransen]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in Toronto the major impediments to building small-scale apartments (4-6 storeys) outside of zoning are building codes and cost of land, no?

I know that City Planning is still working on the Major Streets Study (looks like consultation is over, unfortunately) and I truly hope something good comes out of that.

My understanding is that long timelines for permitting also makes small-scale projects less financially viable.

 

[rdaner]

So the number of parking lots being looked at for housing development has gone up from about 25% to over 33%. Details are becoming a little more clear.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/parking-lot-to-homes-conversion-1.7137918

 

[rdaner]

So there is political opposition to zoning change in Calgary. Surprised that it took this long! Windsor also had an issue. I post this because although reform is necessary and long-overdue people’s concerns do need to be addressed.

6 city councillors want to send Calgary's rezoning proposal to a plebiscite

A Calgary city council notice of motion to send proposed citywide changes on zoning rules to a public vote has already been endorsed by at least six councillors.Council has scheduled a public hearing on the upzoning proposal for April 22.If approved, it would allow row houses and townhomes to be...

ca.news.yahoo.com

 

[rdaner]

There has been a lot made of the report that only six garden suites have been built. But I do have questions around the way that this has been portrayed and taken up by many. The first is that this is only garden suites which are separate from laneway houses. Secondly there have been insinuations that basement units are increasing at a high rate but is difficult to measure as many are unreported. Finally I think that there hasn’t been enough time to evaluate the impact of zoning reform in completed units.

 

[goodcitywhenfinished]

So there is political opposition to zoning change in Calgary. Surprised that it took this long! Windsor also had an issue. I post this because although reform is necessary and long-overdue people’s concerns do need to be addressed.

6 city councillors want to send Calgary's rezoning proposal to a plebiscite

A Calgary city council notice of motion to send proposed citywide changes on zoning rules to a public vote has already been endorsed by at least six councillors.Council has scheduled a public hearing on the upzoning proposal for April 22.If approved, it would allow row houses and townhomes to be...

ca.news.yahoo.com

I feel like its possible that Edmonton will overtake Calgary in population within the medium-long term. Calgary seems to have lost its build, build, build mentality and is slowly falling into the same degrowth NIMBYism that Toronto is plagued with.

Edmonton seems to be the only city in Canada with a proper abundance agenda at the municipal level. Every residential plot in the city is allowed 8 units as of right, and there is talk of updating for 8 storey (!!!) apartments as-of-right on every residential plot in inner-city neighbourhoods bordering downtown (not just major streets, every single residential lot). I hope Toronto can take note.

 

[T-Bor]

I feel like its possible that Edmonton will overtake Calgary in population within the medium-long term. Calgary seems to have lost its build, build, build mentality and is slowly falling into the same degrowth NIMBYism that Toronto is plagued with.

Edmonton seems to be the only city in Canada with a proper abundance agenda at the municipal level. Every residential plot in the city is allowed 8 units as of right, and there is talk of updating for 8 storey (!!!) apartments as-of-right on every residential plot in inner-city neighbourhoods bordering downtown (not just major streets, every single residential lot). I hope Toronto can take note.

One important thing to note is that pretty much all of 'Old Calgary' already makes it extremely easy to build. The proposal is simply to expand it to the rest of the much more suburban city. So it's not that Calgary is losing its 'build, build, build' mentality, as it's still way easier to turn a detached bungalow into 4 townhouses in much of the city.

But to your point, long-term if Edmonton does allow more building, it should keep prices cheaper

 

[allengeorge]

Scrambling after Greenbelt scandal, Doug Ford promises $1.8B to build up cities — but no fourplexes

The provincial budget next week will include an additional $1.8 billion for roads and water infrastructure, the premier announced Thursday.

www.thestar.com

FTA:

“I heard that announcement from Bonnie Crombie and I can assure you 1,000 per cent you go in the middle of communities and start putting up four-storeys, six-storey, eight-storey buildings … there's going to be a lot of shouting and screaming," said Ford.

"That's a massive mistake. We are not going to go into communities and build four-storey or six-storey buildings beside residences like this," he said, beckoning toward the homes being built nearby.

"It's off the table for us. We're going to build homes, single dwelling homes, townhomes, that's what we're going to focus on."

 

[MrGoose]

Dougie's YIMBY phase could only last so long I guess

 

[christiesplits]

Scrambling after Greenbelt scandal, Doug Ford promises $1.8B to build up cities — but no fourplexes

The provincial budget next week will include an additional $1.8 billion for roads and water infrastructure, the premier announced Thursday.

www.thestar.com

FTA:

“I heard that announcement from Bonnie Crombie and I can assure you 1,000 per cent you go in the middle of communities and start putting up four-storeys, six-storey, eight-storey buildings … there's going to be a lot of shouting and screaming," said Ford.

"That's a massive mistake. We are not going to go into communities and build four-storey or six-storey buildings beside residences like this," he said, beckoning toward the homes being built nearby.

"It's off the table for us. We're going to build homes, single dwelling homes, townhomes, that's what we're going to focus on."

The Ford-friendly developers and construction firms behind lobbyist groups like BILD and OHBA know their profit margins are much higher with "sprawl-first" planning policies.

 

[Northern Light]

Scrambling after Greenbelt scandal, Doug Ford promises $1.8B to build up cities — but no fourplexes

The provincial budget next week will include an additional $1.8 billion for roads and water infrastructure, the premier announced Thursday.

www.thestar.com

FTA:

“I heard that announcement from Bonnie Crombie and I can assure you 1,000 per cent you go in the middle of communities and start putting up four-storeys, six-storey, eight-storey buildings … there's going to be a lot of shouting and screaming," said Ford.

"That's a massive mistake. We are not going to go into communities and build four-storey or six-storey buildings beside residences like this," he said, beckoning toward the homes being built nearby.

"It's off the table for us. We're going to build homes, single dwelling homes, townhomes, that's what we're going to focus on."

There's a conflation here between height and fourplexes that makes no inherent sense. A fourplex can be 2-storey.

While the Premier's rant is political and aimed at a certain constituency, he isn't entirely wrong. As-of-right, six storeys, in the middle of 1-2s SFH, (not on arterials, but in neighbourhood interiors) will not fly. Anyone proposing it is likely committing to the end of their political career and will duly be replaced by someone who will repeal said change.

There must be a bit of sense in understanding where the median person is on such things.

There are a variety of other reasons that six or eight storeys in the interior of a lowrise community don't make sense. In general, sewers and watermains have been sized to what's there; there's a considerable cost to replacing these.

Also, a large building can't do garbage pick-up like a home, they need big bins, which require big trucks, which small side streets often don't fit.

Its just silly. Fourplexes are now legal in the majority of urban Ontario.

From here, the focus should be as-of-rights on major roads. There we can and typically should go higher.

Though :I'm still inclined to go for 4s, as-of-right, and then go back and upzone specific stretches well beyond that where it makes sense.

The intent is to avoid blowback and to maintain orderly planning and infrastructure investment.

 

[MrGoose]

Only noble born SFH owners are allowed quiet homes on low traffic, forested side-streets. Peasants get to overlook the stroad canyon and breath in tire dust and exhaust fumes, admiring the world from their 10sqft balcony.

(Only a semi-serious take)

 

[Northern Light]

Only noble born SFH owners are allowed quiet homes on low traffic, forested side-streets. Peasants get to overlook the stroad canyon and breath in tire dust and exhaust fumes, admiring the world from their 10sqft balcony.

(Only a semi-serious take)

Not even semi-serious.

You present no actual facts; and what you describe simply isn't true.

 

[MrGoose]

Not even semi-serious.

You present no actual facts; and what you describe simply isn't true.

By restricting multi-family homes to arterials, this is the housing reality you will create, the mature state of which can be seen in North York Center.

You can see this further reflected in the school district boundaries where the Noble Elites of East Willowdale elected to keep the low-born suckers living in the condos along Yonge St, out of their Earl Haig, and send them to a high school much further away.

Anyone not wealthy enough to buy a SFH outright or fortunate enough to have parents who bought pre 2015, will only be able to afford a multi-family unit. And Multi-family units can only be built along Stroad Canyons like Yonge St between Sheppard and Finch.

Its ridiculous to suggest that garbage pickup for a multi-family home can't work because "small side streets can't fit them". Last time I checked, the garbage trucks that picked up big dumpsters and individual home owners trash bins were the same size and those "small side streets" seemed to have no problem fitting either.

If sewage and infrastructure were the primary constraining factors (instead of political backlash from NIMBY SFH owners) then big chunks of yellowbelt should be expropriated, demolished, the infrastructure redone in one go and upzoned massively.

Its the same old cowardly deference to landowners that has plagued Canadian urban planning for decades.

 

[christiesplits]

While the Premier's rant is political and aimed at a certain constituency, he isn't entirely wrong. As-of-right, six storeys, in the middle of 1-2s SFH, (not on arterials, but in neighbourhood interiors) will not fly. Anyone proposing it is likely committing to the end of their political career and will duly be replaced by someone who will repeal said change.

I disagree, respectfully, Northern. Now, building 20 storey condos in the middle of SFH subdivisions would be overkill. I think fourplexes are more than reasonable given our cataclysmic housing crisis.