I spoke about responsible development in my last platform, and the problem has only worsened since then. Unsuitable developments and overdevelopment are still happening across the city in the rush to supply more units. If we are to maintain a sustainable livable city and preserve our environment and way of life, we must ensure development respects guidelines, is done to the highest environmental standards, and includes far more public housing.
- Three Tactics to Increase Supply
- Urban Design Guidelines
- Building Standards and Construction
- Public Housing
Three Tactics to Increase Supply
The strategy for responsibly providing more housing supply must follow three tactics in order of priority:
- Do everything possible to open up all existing vacancies. We must use a potent vacancy tax and any other appropriate measure so speculators and investors are encouraged to sell or rent or lose money.
- The three R’s: repair, renovate, retrofit. We must look at every opportunity to turn existing buildings into livable space, ModernTO is a great example.
- Only when the first two options are exhausted should we be approving new development.
The housing first provided should focus on rentals of affordable units and housing for seniors. Whether closet-sized bachelors or luxury suites, we do not need more privately-owned condos. We already know we need more affordable units, but with the so-called “grey wave” of the Boomers passing, we need more housing for seniors, and of a quality that will encourage them to sell their homes.
Urban Design Guidelines
Responsible development first and foremost adheres to existing zoning and guidelines, respects the scale and character of an area, and should ALWAYS involve a community benefits agreement. Too often communities have developed guidelines, like the Queen St E Urban Design Guidelines, only to see developers able to sidestep them time and again.
Why do these guidelines exist if council is going to continually make exceptions for developers? Are they actual guidelines to be followed or are they to placate residents so that they have the illusion of being heard and hold onto the false hope that they can, in fact, have an impact on developments in their community?
A growing concern is also the aesthetics, or lack thereof, of many new developments. We seem to be at the mercy of the design preferences of architects, and the proliferation of cookie cutter cube-like condos. The muted, colourless palettes of dark grey and beige are going to make this city quite a drab place to live for the next century if allowed to continue. New condos seem to conform to the same boring designs and colours, and we are being rapidly boxed in by these imposing uninspiring cubes. We need urban design guidelines to have stronger specifications for materials and design, with far more input from the community on those aspects, before we are living in a neo-Brutalist landscape (an architecture style that emphasizes bare materials and structure over decorative design) of dull dark siding and glass.
Building Standards and Construction
For a development to be responsible also means, without exception, it must be up to the highest building standards, using the most environmentally appropriate materials and be as close to a net-zero building as technology allows. This should not be a voluntary measure as it currently is, and constructing buildings so cheaply they are falling apart after less than a decade, and are not likely to stand up to increasingly extreme weather, should not be allowed. In an era of climate change, causing unanticipated acceleration of wear and tear on buildings and infrastructure, we must build everything with the best materials possible to withstand the increasing volatility of our weather.
New developments must also have their construction as low-polluting and carbon-reduced as possible, and this means ensuring no unnecessary vehicle idling on construction sites.
Public Housing
Most important of all, however, is the building of more PUBLIC housing. There are centuries of evidence from around the world showing how the ability to charge rent attracts the most unscrupulous to do so, and we simply cannot trust the private sector to do any better than protect their bottom line. It got so bad in Berlin they voted to expropriate buildings from corporate landlords. There are also great examples, like Vienna, where public housing is the norm and works well.
This is why new housing should be publicly-owned and operated, not just to ensure permanent affordability and accountability, but also because it eventually becomes a revenue stream for the city. Public land should not be sold off to private developers (as this article suggests) as a trade for temporary affordability. Keeping it PUBLIC is the best way to build affordable housing.