Building December 2018 January 2019

Urban Development / Architecture & Design / Innovation

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building.ca December 2018/January 2019 CDN $4.95

Permit Process Emerging Trends Commercial Property Taxes

Rezoning the Yellowbelt

2018-12-10 11:21 AM

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FEATURES

Departments

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Zoned Out While Toronto’s mushrooming skyline signals explosive growth, much of the city loses population.

Can zoning reform reverse the trend and address the housing crisis?

By Stefan Novakovic

Tipped Scales Commercial property owners still carrying brunt of the tax load across Canada.

By Terry Bishop

Striking the Perfect Balance Architects marry latest technology with historical integrity in massive renovation project at Parliament Hill.

By Thomas Renner

Welcome to Our Cities.

Please build.

St. Catharines and Welland take different approaches to put developers on the fast track.

By Marco Marino & Lina DeChellis

05 06 08 10 11 27 30

Editor’s Notes Market Watch Legal Briefs From the Bullpen Powers that Be Site Visit Viewpoint

Building.CA Explore Ronald O. Perelman Center A new building for the University of Pennsylvania, designed by Torontobased KPMB, unifies disparate programs.

Explore Projet Bonaventure Half a mile of elevated expressway was demolished in downtown Montréal to make way for a ground-level urban boulevard.

Read Finding Cycling Inspiration from the Dutch Melissa and Chris Bruntlett explore how and why the Dutch have embraced the bicycle with such success.

Building.ca

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Volume 68 No. 6

Editor in Chief Peter Sobchak Art Director Roy Gaiot Associate Editor Stefan Novakovic Legal Editor Jeffrey W. Lem Contributors Terry Bishop, Lina DeChellis, Richard Joy, Megan J. Lem, Marco Marino, Shannon Moore, Ben Myers, Kevin Powers, Thomas Renner Customer Service / Production Laura Moffatt, 416 441 2085 x104 Press Releases pressroom@building.ca Circulation Manager circulation@building.ca Sales Manager Faria Ahmed, 416 441 2085 x106 fahmed@building.ca Vice President & Senior Publisher Steve Wilson, 416 441 2085 x105 swilson@building.ca President, iQ Business Media Inc. Alex Papanou Design Consultation BLVD Agency

Building magazine is published by iQ Business Media Inc. 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302 Toronto, ON M3B 1Z3 (416) 441 2085 x104 info@building.ca www.building.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATE: Canada: 1 year, $30.95; 2 years, $52.95; 3 years, $64.95 (plus H.S.T.) U.S.A.: 1 year, $38.95 USD. Overseas: 1 year, $45.95 USD. BACK ISSUES: Back copies are available for $15 for delivery in Canada, $20 USD for delivery in U.S.A. and $30 USD overseas. Please send prepayment to Building, 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302 Toronto, ON M3B 1Z3.

Subscription and back issues inquiries please call (416) 441 2085 x104, e-mail: circulation@building.ca or go to www.building.ca Please send changes of address to Circulation Department, Building magazine or e-mail to addresses@building.ca Building is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia ProQuest Company, Toronto (www.micromedia. com) and National Archive Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.napubco.com)

Building is published six times a year. Printed in Canada. The content of this p ­ ublication is the property of Building and cannot be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

Funded by the Government of Canada

H.S.T. #80456 2965 RT0001 ISSN 1185-3654 (Print), ISSN 1923-3361 (Online) Canada Post Sales Agreement #43096012

The Blue Belt

In many ways, cities can be seen as colourful intermingling swaths of an abstract painter’s brush: bold stripes — or dare I say “belts” — of green, grey, white, red and as discussed at length in this issue, yellow. On canvas, they certainly make for a pastiche of vibrant rainbow hues, but when it comes to the fine art of city building, developers and land use planners may not see it as such. In so many ways the rules governing how and even if building can happen in these colourbelts do not reflect how cities are evolving in the modern area, as Stefan Novakovic vividly illustrates in his cover story.

As we all know, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has many of these resplendent swaths coursing within its boundaries, and as powerful as certain colours like green and yellow are, another is certainly the blue belt: meaning, its waterfront. And while many of the land-locked colourbelts provide endless headaches for developers trying to build within the city, there is no other belt as immovable as the waterfront.

In recent years, the GTA has had difficulties transforming waterfronts from industrial-use into livable communities. Patches are being transformed, some to better effect than others, and big moves are still being made, with all eyes and ears trained for updates on the headline-grabbing evolution of Sidewalk Labs. Other projects are underway as well, and while not as glitzy have the potential to be even more impactful in the long run. For example, this winter Waterfront Toronto begins excavation on a new kilometre-long river valley, a natural spillway and new mouth for the Don River, part of a $1.25-billion, seven-year infrastructure project that will unlock 290 hectares of underused waterfront land for revitalization.

Straddling Toronto’s eastern border another project is underway, and one I will be paying very close attention to. The site of the former Lakeview Generating Station

Peter Sobchak Editor in Chief We welcome your feedback. Send your questions and comments to psobchak@building.ca

in Mississauga has sat unused since the coalfired power plant was shut down in 2005.

After 43 years as an industrial site, almost 200 acres of lakefront real estate sits mostly empty. Earlier this year, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) sold the land to a consortium of developers collectively known as Lakeview Community Partners Limited (LCPL) to remediate the former industrial lands and create a new mixed-use waterfront community called Lakeview Village.

LCPL executives sat down and showed me the details: in a nutshell, Lakeview Village will create as many as 7,000 new homes, including townhouses, mid-rise, and high-rise buildings, along with 600,000 square feet of employment space and 200,000 square feet of cultural space.

There will also be a 26-hectare conservation area and a pier that extends into Lake Ontario (and keep an eye out for what they have in mind for garbage collection!).

You don’t get an opportunity to deliver a truly transformational project on the waterfront like these every day, and the potential to “eff” it up is incredible. But the need to get it right is even more incredible. Which is why we will be watching.

Building.ca

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market watch Spotlight: Emerging Trends

Affordability tops concerns as real estate sector focuses on supply

The real estate sector is carefully monitoring recent tariff negotiations around steel and rising interest rates, which could further exacerbate affordability issues for Canadians. Developers, investors, lenders and other leading experts are cautiously optimistic about the sector according to the 2019 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report published by PwC Canada and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). However, there is a bright future for flex spaces, PropTech, and seniors’ housing.

Residential Real Estate Land supply is the number one development concern heading into 2019 and the report highlights that all levels of government need to increase their focus on the supply side of the issue, not just demand. Markets like Edmonton and Montréal managed to bring new housing supply into balance with rising prices, but markets like Toronto and Vancouver have yet to do so.

“Dealing with the affordability issue is a shared responsibility between government and developers. While government addressed demand by introducing measures like tighter mortgage rules and foreign taxes, they neglected the supply side,” says Frank

Estimated

Population of canada’s 75-84 and 85+ age cohorts

Magliocco, National Real Estate Leader, PwC Canada. “Reducing regulation and making more land available for development in a timely manner will help address the affordability issue.”

The proportion of household income needed to service the costs of a singlefamily home grew to 53.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, with Vancouver leading the charge with 119.3 per cent. High housing costs are pushing Canadians, especially millennials, to abandon the dream of owning housing in the city for the suburbs or other markets for more affordable housing.

Rising interest rates and higher tariffs on foreign steel are top of mind for developers and owners. For example, tariffs on steel could translate into more expensive input costs for residential and commercial builders, ultimately putting further pressure on affordability.

Commercial Real Estate Co-working or flex office spaces continue to see an upward trend and are forecasted to make up 30 per cent of corporate real estate portfolios by 2030. “Creating a co-working space isn’t so much about cost as it is building a community and sharing experiences and knowledge between differ-

7,000 6,000 Total ages 75 & over

5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000

85+ years

75 - 84 years

1,000 0 2017

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December 2018 /January 2019

2020

2025

2030

2035

2040

Source: Statistics Canada, accessed July 18, 2018

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PropTech revs up with significant investment in funds dealing with the convergence of real estate and technology. last-mile delivery needs. Autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity and construction technology were also identified as top technology real estate disruptors.

PropTech

Real Estate Tech Global Financing History

* Full year projection

Source: CB Insites, provided on August 13, 2018

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Expected Best Bets for 2019 Warehousing and Fulfillment – Warehousing and fulfillment represent the top development prospects among survey respondents.

With the increased need for last-mile delivery and e-commerce facilities, logistics and fulfillment continue to be a major opportunity for creating value. As tenants look for increasingly larger spaces, vacancy rates are tightening and rents are rising.

Senior Lifestyle Housing – Among the top development prospects with survey respondents is senior lifestyle housing, which one interviewee described as “a rising tide that can’t be denied.” With the number of Canadians over age 65 having surpassed

Disclosed funding (US$ billions)

The emergence of PropTech, which covers everything from new lending services to investment platforms and digital brokerages, is changing the way properties are bought, sold and managed. According to the report, PropTech is forecasted to add US$5.2 billion in new investment globally across 454 equity deals in 2018, after reaching a record US$3.4 billion in 2017 across 367 deals. However, only 10 per cent of CEOs in global real estate are concerned about the speed of technological change.

Drones were the top real estate disrupter identified in the report. There is potential in using drones to show job-site progress and others are looking to integrate docking stations into communities to accommodate

those under age 15 for the first time in the 2016 census, interviewees cited the development opportunities for senior lifestyle housing. While the development boom could lead to oversupply in markets such as the GTA, demand is expected to be strong. An important factor in driving demand for facilities that cater to seniors’ needs is the growth in the population aged 85 and older.

Multifamily Market – As the cost of entering the housing market makes homeownership an increasing challenge, Canadians will continue to turn to multifamily options as an affordable alternative. Survey respondents cite multifamily homes as a top development prospect, followed by a new trend of industrial condominiums. Statistics Canada has been reporting brisk activity for building permits for multifamily dwellings. In fact, it reported a record $3.1 billion in multifamily building permits for May 2018.

$6

600

5

454

4 285

3 2

326

400

367

300

208

200 100

1 0

500

Deals

ent people and industries,” adds Magliocco.

The multi-family apartment sector continues to be a strong performer but segments of the retail sector are continuing to struggle and are forced to reinvent themselves. The industrial sector continues to perform well and with Canada’s legalization of recreational cannabis is set to provide opportunities across the country as emerging companies look to find industrial space to grow the plant and retail space to sell product.

Senior lifestyle housing is among the top development prospects for the next year since Canadians over the age of 65 have surpassed those under the age of 15.

In 2017, 31 per cent of Canadians aged 85 and older lived in collective dwellings, which will only grow in upcoming years.

$1.3

$2.5

$2.9

$3.4

2014

2015

2016

2017

$5.2

0

2018*

Building.ca

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legal Briefs Nothing to See Here

U.S. clamps down on foreign investment in real estate near “strategic locations.”

By Jeffrey W. Lem and Megan J. Lem

Jeffrey W. Lem is Editor-in-Chief of the Real Property Reports and the Director of Titles for the Province of Ontario. The opinions expressed in this article are personal to the author and not attributable or referable to the government of the Province of Ontario.

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Megan J. Lem is a corporate lawyer in the Toronto office of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. This article reflects the opinions of the author alone.

Although much of the popular press has focused recently on the tariffs imposed by the United States on Canadian steel and aluminum imports for “national security” reasons, there are also growing national security concerns in the United States about foreign ownership of American real estate, and this new American investment xenophobia may have spillover benefits on Canadian real estate investment.

The Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) is an interagency, cabinet-level committee within the U.S. government chaired by the Department of the Treasury and tasked with examining the national security implications of foreign direct investments in the United States.

President Trump (almost surreptitiously in contrast to the high-profile steel and aluminum tariffs), recently passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modern­ ization Act of 2018 (“ FIRRMA”) materially expanding CFIUS’ scope of authority and implementing administrative changes that give greater powers to CFIUS in exercising such newfound authority.

FIRRMA’s most substantial reform is the extension and codification of CFIUS ’ jurisdiction to investments in real estate “near” U.S . government “strategic locations.”

Prior to the enactment of FIRRMA , foreign investments in real estate near U.S . government strategic locations were within CFIUS ’ jurisdiction only if such investments coincidentally arose in the context of a larger transaction resulting in a foreigner’s control over a U.S . business. FIRRMA codifies CFIUS ’ jurisdiction to review a pure asset deal: any direct purchase, lease, or concession by or to a foreigner of any real estate asset near a U.S . government strategic location.

Ironically (well, not so ironic if you are a conspiracy theorist), the definition for requisite proximity is actually circular:

a piece of real estate is “near” a strategic location if it is within whatever radius could pose a national security risk. Furthermore, what constitutes a strategic location is equally vague: while airports, military bases and similar government installations are reasonably self-evident, the list of potential strategic locations is neither finite nor terribly precise.

FIRRMA also gave CFIUS a new “general anti-avoidance” power to make any transaction reviewable if such transaction was somehow intended to or has the effect of circumventing or evading review by CFIUS. While the details of this general anti-avoidance power are expected to be set forth in enabling regulations due out soon, as FIRRMA is currently drafted, no transaction, no matter how seemingly removed it is from being a bona fide national security concern, can safely be presumed to be exempt from CFIUS oversight.

There is a bit of a silver lining to FIRRMA though. Parties now have the option to submit a “short-form declaration” outlining basic information regarding the transaction (essentially, a “light-filing” or “summary judgement” type of application) for those transactions that they believe are unlikely to jeopardize national security. CFIUS will then have 30 days from the date the short-form declaration is filed to respond by clearing the transaction altogether or initiating a full CFIUS investigation in lieu of clearance.

It is widely speculated that FIRRMA was passed to target high-risk investments

by Chinese and Russian government interests. Of course, seasoned Chinese investors in U.S . real estate already know all too well the reach of CFIUS, even before its powers were significantly boosted by FIRRMA . In 2016, Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group acquired a group of luxury hotels from New York City-based Black­ stone Group, including the famed Waldorf

December 2018 /January 2019

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a piece of real estate is “near” a strategic location if it is within whatever radius could pose a national security risk Astoria Hotel. While CFIUS ultimately approved the take-over of the business (including ownership of the Waldorf Astoria), another hotel in the same business—the Hotel del Coronado near Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, a U.S . Navy SEAL training base in San Diego—was

dropped from the package after CFIUS expressed national security concerns (and this was before Trump won the election and ushered in even more anti-Chinese rhetoric!). Anbang Insurance Group is again back in CFIUS’ sights—this time with greatly expanded CFIUS powers thanks

to FIRRMA—in light of Anbang’s recent takeover by the Chinese government.

Ultimately, it is too early to tell what risk this new review process and new powers will pose to foreign acquisitions of typical U.S . real property assets. At best, FIRRMA will prove to be a due diligence “red tape” irritant to most foreign investors in U.S . real estate. At worst, FIRRMA could strangle foreign investment in U.S . real estate from friends and foes alike.

Regardless of how FIRRMA ultimately impacts U.S . real property investment, FIRRMA has already made an instant winner out of Canadian real estate. Foreign investors and domestic Canadian investors even thinking of investing in the United States now have at least one more reason to look north of the 49th Parallel instead for real estate investment opportunities, and, anecdotally, Canadian markets are already seeing the benefit of growing U.S . “national security” concerns.

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from the bullpen Let Us In! Political interference is killing the rental market

By Ben Myers

Ben Myers is president of Bullpen Research & Consulting, a boutique real estate advisory firm that works with land owners, developers, and lenders to better inform them of the current and future macroeconomic and site-specific housing market conditions that can impact their active or proposed development projects.

Follow Bullpen on Twitter at @BullpenConsult or find Ben at www.BullpenConsulting.ca.

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There is a desperate need for more rental apartment supply in Canada. CMHC data shows that the national rental vacancy rate last year was just three per cent. The blended number for the entire country hides the grim fact that the vacancy rate was 1.1 per cent in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), and 0.9 per cent in the Vancouver CMA in 2017.

When vacancy rates are this low, landlords have all the power, allowing them to raise rates significantly due to limited alternative options for tenants. Cries of rent gouging and “renovictions” raise the ire of industry groups and grab media attention for the need for expanded tenant protections. Those complaints led to government intervention in expanded rent control legislation in Ontario in 2017 and British Columbia in 2018. These are well-intentioned but unwise decisions by the government. As any first-year economics student is taught, price controls have enormous unintended consequences, and often make things much worse. It is also worth noting that there are two sides to every story, and some rent gouging is done to remove bad tenants, for example those listing units on Airbnb, starting grow-ops, and not paying rent.

The best way to improve rental market conditions is to add more available supply, either by private investors buying more ownership units to lease out, or by building more purpose-built rental apartments. Despite increasing demand for rentals via strong immigration and decreased credit availability for mortgages, it is still tough for rental developers to make the numbers work. Expanded rent control is just another disincentive.

“It’s very challenging to build new purpose-built rental housing in the current record-high construction cost environment, especially when we are seeing discouraging government regulations such as strengthened rent control. Also, operating costs have been increasing over the last 10 years at a compound annual growth rate of almost eight per cent per annum according to a recent study

by LandlordBC” says Aly F. Jiwan, CEO of Redbrick Properties Inc.

“The Ontario government’s recent removal of rent controls on new rental units was a good step that we strongly urge the B.C. government to consider. Without a similar move, the private market rental housing supply will slow dramatically and we need much more rental housing supply,” adds Jiwan. “Four decades of underbuilding has created the significant rental housing shortage that B.C. faces today. Throughout history and in every jurisdiction they have been tried, rent controls just do not work and end up harming tenants, the very people government wants to help.

Jurisdictions without any rent controls, like Alberta, have much healthier rental markets.”

In Ontario, increased municipal fees and charges have resulted in many developers converting would-be rental projects to condominium tenure. According to Naram Mansour, president of Toronto-based Carlyle Communities, “Rental development has become more challenged in the past couple of years given a significant increase in development levies, which have risen by 40 per cent in the last 12 months, coupled with a 20 per cent-plus increase in hard construction costs. Notwithstanding the rising rental rates, growth in the cost of land plus input costs has outpaced the growth in rental rates, driving returns lower for developers who would have otherwise considered building new rental buildings.”

Developers and their financial backers are not going to build new housing if the return is not high enough to offset the risk. High and rising land and construction costs are two of the biggest factors impacting the creation of new rental supply, but as various levels of government reiterate the need for more affordable housing, they continue to add disincentives for the development industry in the form of land-transfer taxes, development charges, parkland dedication fees, delayed approvals, and rent control.

If you’re looking for someone to blame for a lack of new rental development, government bureaucrats with their hand out and politicians ignorant to the economics of rent control are a good place to start.

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powers that be The Good is the Bad and the Ugly The trick for a developer is to identify which groups think which.

By Kevin Powers

Kevin Powers is managing principal of Project Advocacy Inc., a subsidiary of Campbell Strategies, and is focused on helping project developers facing public and government opposition.

Find him at www.projectadvocacy.ca or email him at kevin.powers@ projectadvocacy.ca

Some development projects are bound to face local opposition. Think power plants, safe injection sites and landfills. For these, the path to approval is guaranteed to be long and ugly.

Ideally, the same shouldn’t hold true for seemingly good projects. These are developments that will make a positive difference in the community; that promise to reinvigorate a deteriorating mall or bring new industries to crumbling neighbourhoods; that work hard to get green designations; create the right density and provide environmental mitigations.

In the real world, though, this means little, and the path to approval is lined equally with the graves of good projects and bad.

The reason good and bad projects suffer the same fate is simple: developers and the community rarely see eye-to-eye about the merits of a project.

To a developer, good projects are winwins. They can be environmentally sensitive and bring much-needed jobs or rehabilitate abandoned buildings. They can feature architecture that enhances a community or bring in needed mixed-income housing. But neighbours don’t see development the same way. For them, any new development automatically means dirt, noise and disruption.

Jobs mean traffic. Mixed-income housing means crime and drugs. Rehabilitation means destroying a place that has become part of the fabric of their lives, for better or worse. No matter how well-designed, thoughtful, or environmentally sensitive a project may be, it still represents change and the possibility that bad things, real or imagined, may come of it.

As a result, not even so-called good projects can assume a clear path to approval.

Yes, being good is necessary for approval, but it does not necessarily mean approval.

In fact, where good projects most often go wrong is in assuming that they are good in the first place. That neighbours will see the big picture. That interest groups have bigger fish to fry. And that the lure of tax dollars will satisfy politicians.

On this assumption, complacency with stakeholders becomes the default setting for many developers. Assured the merits of their project are self-evident, they will often work strictly with the planning department and maybe the local councillor. They will assume everyone else is on board until they find out, to their surprise, many aren’t.

This is an approach you never see with, say, landfill developers. They assume from the get-go, rightly, that they are not wanted and work accordingly. They figure out who won’t want them and why. They develop talking points they think might address their concerns.

And before they even submit the first plans to the city, they proactively go out and meet with them. They begin a dialogue that lasts throughout the approvals process and beyond.

Exactly who those people are will vary from project to project. But there are always the same core constituencies, whether you’re a landfill or an office tower: neighbours; activists; special interests and politicians. The success of your project relies on at least attempting to allay the concerns of each. For neighbours, good projects are usually those that have the least negative effect on their peace and quiet, and the most positive impact on their property values. For activists, it could mean having the smallest possible carbon footprint or the least effect on water quality or wetlands. Interest groups will want to know you are taking measures to preserve the fabric of the neighbourhood.

And then at the top of the approval pyramid are the politicians. Yes, they need to know the size of the investment, the number of jobs and the amount of tax revenue the project will generate. But for them a good project is one that has taken steps to become part of the neighbourhood. It has made efforts to actively address the concerns of the local neighbours, environmentalists and interest groups. And because of this, it is a project they can point to with pride at election time as something that they helped bring to the community. Ultimately, if a good project hasn’t done this, it isn’t a good project after all.

Building.ca

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© current 2018

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Zoned Out

WHILE Toronto’s mushrooming skyline signals explosiv e grow th, much of the cit y loses population. C a n zoning r eform r ev erse the tr end a nd addr ess the housing crisis? By Stefan Novakovic Building.ca

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Pick a street corner in downtown Toronto and look around.

Then look up. Odds are, you will see evidence of the city’s rapid transformation almost wherever you look. According to Rider Levett Bucknall’s 2018 Crane Index, Toronto leads North America in per capita construction cranes, with residential development accounting for the lion’s share of new development. As a seemingly ceaseless condo boom nears its third decade, construction is ever-present in Canada’s largest city. Yet past the unmissable influx of intensification a more subtle phenomenon quietly hollows out much of the city.

While new residents are flocking downtown, population is stagnant or declining across most of the city. In 2017, urban planners Cheryll Case and Tetyana Bailey published a study filtering overall census population statistics through Toronto’s zoning boundaries. As towers filled the skyline, overall population grew by 7.6 per cent between 2001 and 2016. But over the same period, Case and Bailey found some neighbourhoods declining in population, while many more remained stagnant.

Speaking to The Globe and Mail, Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis CEO Paul Smetanin framed the issue with sobering clarity. “Since 2001, about 52 per cent of the land mass of Toronto has reduced in density of population by about 201,000 people.” Although that population loss is offset by huge gains in other parts of Toronto — which added over 500,000 residents since the turn of the millennium — the numbers make for strange reading in a

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city facing record-high housing costs, skyrocketing rents and historically low vacancy rates.

Zoning and the Yellowbelt According to Case, the population decline has several root causes. “Demographics have changed since most of Toronto’s residential neighbourhoods were built,” she says. “Much of our single-family housing stock was built when families had three or four kids, but that’s no longer common.” As overall popu-

lation continues to grow, the inherent scarcity of centrally located urban land means single-family homes become more expensive in the long run.

While young families can’t buy homes in Toronto’s single-family neighbourhoods, the ‘overhoused’ older residents who remain “often lack other options for aging in place,” says Case. Becoming increasingly inaccessible to new residents, many of Toronto’s single-family neighbourhoods experience declining school enrollment, leading to

RLB Crane Index - July 2018

26

65

Calgary

97

Seattle

30

Toronto

13

Portland

Boston

40

26

New York

20

Chicago

San Francisco Denver

28

36

Washington DC

27

Los Angeles

4

Phoenix

Source: Rider Levett Bucknall

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Toronto’s “Yellowbelt” Zoning

closures and further exacerbating existing problems. Depopulation similarly impacts street-level retail; it’s hard to do business with fewer customers. Designed for mid-century nuclear families, the built form in Toronto’s older neighbourhoods lacks adequate flexibility to accommodate new housing types.

And it’s intended to stay that way.

Per the Official Plan (OP), the “stable residential neighbourhoods” currently losing population are explicitly insulated from growth and development. The low-rise residential zones that make up most of the city’s land area are zoned to remain as they are. New single-family homes can replace existing ones, but other building forms are not permitted. It’s one of the reasons we build so many high-rise towers elsewhere, with a city’s worth of demand channelled into the relatively small strips earmarked for intensification.

Coined by urban planner Gil Meslin, the term ‘yellowbelt’ takes its name from Toronto’s large “residential detached” zone, defined in the zoning by-law as areas that permit only detached residential housing.

Source: City of Toronto

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And despite policy tweaks over the last decade (including the decision to allow laneway suites), these areas remain nearly impossible to meaningfully intensify.

In fact, even adding more of the modestly scaled buildings that have dotted Toronto’s older residential neighbourhoods since the early 20th century is restricted. Predating modern zoning, many of these buildings constitute the human-scaled ‘missing middle’ of development that provides a transitional ground between towers and detached homes. Today, they could not be built.

A Progressive Paradox?

Toronto isn’t alone in restricting new development in residential areas. Across North America, similar swaths of single-family homes surround central pockets of density.

In 2018, 78 per cent of Los Angeles, 42 per cent of Portland, and 57 per cent of Seattle remain blanketed in yellowbelts by another name, and gripped by similar housing affordability problems.

In Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America, housing

activist Randy Shaw argues that many of North America’s most progressive large cities chronically fail to provide adequate new housing supply. Together with San Francisco, liberal bastions like Portland and Denver are also places where new development is most viciously contested. According to Shaw, these communities are “trapped in the framework of past urban renewal fights,” which pit low-income urban residents against cruel top-down planning policies.

These past conflicts are neatly epitomized through the now-legendary conflicts between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. Spearheading New York City’s mid-century urban development, Moses’s policies created elevated expressways at the expense of working class inner-city neighbourhoods, which were hastily bulldozed in favour of suburban America.

In opposition to Moses, Jacobs rallied local residents to oppose the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have torn through neighbourhoods like SoHo and Little Italy in the name of “slum clearance.”

Moving to Toronto in 1968, Jacobs helped guide the city through similar conflicts that

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defined the 1970s ‘reform council’ era. The city pushed to demolish large swathes of the inner city including much of The Annex a nd Ch inatown to build the Spadina Expressway. Luckily, the expressway was halted. So too was a plan to demolish Queen Street’s Trefann Court, protecting a low-income community from forced evictions.

The preservation of Trefann Court marked a turning point in Toronto’s approach to urban planning, giving rise to a more robust community consultation process that puts local residents at the heart of urban decision-making.

Like most North American cities, Toronto now hosts extensive public consultations, with residential neighbourhoods protected from disruptive change. Today’s restrictive zoning and community-oriented urban planning ethos emerged as a necessary corrective against the 20th century’s acutely harmful top-down planning regimes, which were often explicitly racist and exclusionary.

Viewed through this lens, contemporary opposition to zoning reform continues a long progressive history of urban preservation: a perspective as myopic as it is far-sighted.

No longer hubs of immigration and incubators of vibrant ethnic communities, Toronto’s ‘stable’ inner-city neighbourhoods are now full of multi-million dollar homes. Immigrants and low-income Torontonians are increasingly clustered far from the Victorian townhouses once threatened by the Spadina Expressway. The same community-led planning ethos that once protected many from displacement now arguably entrenches the privilege of the few.

According to the University of Toronto’s David Hulchanski, the city is continually becoming divided by income, race, and geography. In his seminal 2005 Three Cities report, Hulchanski identified a shrinking middle class surrounding Toronto’s increasingly prosperous central core, with a ring of low-income suburban communities stradling the city’s northeastern and northwestern boundaries. In the years since, the trend has intensified, with urban wealth becoming more consolidated as the rest of the city faces declining socio-economic mobility.

Considering these factors, the city’s definition of stable neighbourhoods appears dangerously superficial. While residential streets remain as verdant and romantic as

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ever, the declining population, lack of affordability and eroding diversity tell a different story. A holistic definition of ‘stability’ must privilege inclusion, affordability, and quality of life over built form alone.

A New Community Planning Paradigm So why hasn’t zoning policy been amended? The Globe and Mail’s Alex Bozikovic offers simple and convincing answers: “Because that’s politically toxic. Affluent homeowners hate it.” Writing just ahead of Toronto’s recent municipal elections, Bozikovic celebrated the yellowbelt zoning reform advocated by progressive mayoral candidate Sarah Climenhaga, who argued that “the city is creating gated communities, closed off to low-income people.” Climenhaga was one of few candidates to do so, cognizant that her proposal was unlikely to be politically popular “with the small group of people who vote in this city.” But what about everyone else?

Cheryll Case wondered the same thing.

Recently, she organized Housing in Focus, a series of six workshops that brought together some 140 participants from low-income communities across Toronto. There were stories of trying to make rent, getting priced out of neighbourhoods, cycling though transient housing, and struggling (and sometimes failing) to find an affordable place to live.

In a city facing a housing crisis of unprecedented severity, most of the meeting’s participants settled on the same solution: build more housing.

“A desire to see more mid-rise, affordable housing in residential neighbourhoods was quite consistent,” says Case. But if new homes were allowed to be built, would they be affordable? Assuming that significant intensification happened through massive — and massively unprecedented — public investment in affordable housing, new housing supply could be priced to accommodate economically vulnerable residents. But that isn’t likely to happen.

Population Density Canada’s largest cities have low population densities relative to international counterparts inhabitants per km 2

21,067

10,935 7,171 5,493

4,916

4,457

2,112 vancouver

san francisco

toronto

new york

montreal

paris

2,468

calgary mississauga

Source : Fraser Institute

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The same policies that protected the vulnerable from displacement now entrench the privilege of the few.

Barring the introduction of public initiatives that exponentially scale up the scope of the National Housing Strategy, the majority of any new supply will continue to be delivered by private-sector developers. Will the increased supply translate to greater affordability? In Why Can’t You Afford A Home?, British researcher Josh Ryan-Collins argues that the urban housing crises across the Western world should be understood as products of a global banking system where rapidly scaled-up mortgage lending drives up the price of the land that it borrows against.

Ryan-Collins’s thesis is reasonable — and banking reform may help alleviate the housing crisis — but it’s hard to deny that supply plays a key role in alleviating pricing pressures. If 300,000 new apartments appeared in Toronto overnight, the competition to rent a unit would surely lessen, and the bidding wars now facing prospective renters would likely end, bringing prices down.

Where does that leave the yellowbelt? Housing affordability has many determinants, and any long-term solution must address both

supply and demand pressures. Zoning reform alone is no panacea to Toronto’s urban crisis. But in a city at the heart of North America’s fastest-growing urban region, it is also necessary.

An Urban Nation If the politics, history, and market impacts of zoning reform are painfully complex, the environmental and demographic importance of zoning reform is devastatingly simple. Facing the undeniable reality of climate change, urban density is needed to reduce emissions. And if we are committed to a green and inclusive society that provides opportunities for immigrants and low-income Canadians, we must also end the geographic discrimination perpetuated by single-family zoning.

“The single biggest factor in the carbon footprint of our cities isn’t the amount of insulation in our walls, it’s the zoning,” writes Llyod Alter on TreeHugger.com.

Dense urban living, especially the ‘gentle density’ that can re-shape single-family neighbourhoods, is vastly more efficient

— and less environmentally destructive — than sprawl. Despite rapid high-rise construction, the city’s overall population density remains low, leaving lots of room for intensification. And yet low-density suburban growth in the 905 continues to outpace Toronto’s population gains, making the need to unlock development in the urban core all the more urgent.

The solutions may sound like a radical re-scripting of Canadian life, but ours is already a profoundly urban nation. “The dwelling that’s most Canadian, in its sheer numbers and popularity, is the slab farm – the block of high-rise rental apartment buildings, generally constructed between 1955 and 1979,” Doug Saunders writes in The Globe and Mail. In 2018, the realities of apartment living can no longer remain culturally invisible.

As Toronto and other major Canadian cities debate single-family zoning, we must remember that in doing so we are debating the fundamental issues of inclusion and the environment. What must emerge is a new paradigm for understanding our cities, and ourselves.

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Tipped Scales Commercial property owners still carrying brunt of the tax load across Canada. By Terry Bishop Property tax is the main source of revenue for Canadian municipalities and is used to fund services such as education, public transit, road repair and recreational programs.

While every homeowner would naturally appreciate paying less property tax, it is important to balance the burden paid by businesses in each city. However, high commercial property taxes place a greater weight on businesses to contribute a disproportionate share of municipal budgets.

For the past 15 years, Altus Group has analyzed property tax rates of major urban centres across Canada with the annual Canadian Property Tax Rate Benchmark Report. The report compares the commercial and residential tax rates, which are set at the discretion of taxing authorities. Examining the commercial-to-residential tax ratio helps open a dialogue about tax fairness by highlighting disproportionately high taxes paid by commercial property owners compared to residential property owners in an effort to promote a healthy business environment in the real estate sector.

The 2018 Canadian Property Tax Rate Benchmark Report, produced in partnership with REALPAC, surveyed 11 cities across Canada to examine commercial-to-residential tax ratios, which compares the commercial tax rate versus the residential tax rate. For example, if the ratio is 2.50, this means that the commercial tax rate is two-and-a-half times (2.5x) the residential tax rate and that a commercial property would incur property taxes 2.5x times higher than an equally valued residential property. The ideal ratio would be

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one-to-one, as lower tax ratios are an indicator that cities are balancing the tax load on commercial and residential ratepayers, which is one way for cities to both attract new business and maintain a sustainable tax base.

This year’s report revealed that in 7 out of 11 cities surveyed, commercial tax rates are at least 2.5 times greater than residential tax rates.

The average commercial-to-residential tax ratio for all municipalities surveyed was 2.90, meaning that overall, Canadian commercial property owners are paying almost three times as much in taxes compared to residential property owners.

For the eleventh consecutive year, Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal posted the highest commercial-to-residential ratios in the country.

However, the most notable trends this year were in Calgary and Québec City. Both cities saw the highest ratio increases in 2018, indicating a growing burden on commercial rate payers in these cities.

Calgary: increases commercial property tax rates despite high office vacancy For the first time in 14 years, Calgary ranks above the average ratio with a jump of almost 10 per cent (9.48 per cent) from last year, pushing the ratio to 3.06. As the downtown office market continues to struggle with high vacancy, the commercial assessment base has dropped causing the commercial tax rate to rise at a somewhat alarming rate.

There are three main factors impacting the city’s tax environment: the last piece of the Business Tax phase-out is transferring to commercial property tax in 2019; with the

downtown office market still feeling the effects of Alberta’s 2014 economic downturn, downward pressure on the largest commercial assessments has the effect of driving up the tax rate when the municipality collects the same or more tax; and most of the ongoing City of Calgary budgetary increases are being pushed to the commercial tax base, as opposed to the residential tax base.

Calgary has attempted to mitigate these increases with programs such as the Phased Tax Cap Program (PTP), which has capped tax increases at five per cent for the Municipal Tax portion of commercial taxes. Despite these efforts, there aren’t any signs of improvement as it’s anticipated that Calgary is likely in for another commercial tax rate increase in 2019.

Québec: standardization of school tax system The overall tax rate in Québec City and Montréal includes the municipal tax rate and the school tax rate. The school tax system in Québec was recently reviewed for the first time in 25 years, and prior to that, tax rates differed depending on the school board in the residential jurisdiction. Now, following the adoption of Bill 166, the government of Québec has standardized the school board tax rates for all properties across the province, excluding Montréal. Québec City’s ratio has been steadily climbing for 15 years. While the residential tax component has barely changed between 2017 and 2018, the school tax rate has dropped by more than 35 per cent, which is reflected in the large decrease seen in their residential tax rate (-7.47 per

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2018 Commercial-to-residential tax rate ratio

2.44 4.40 vancouver

1.72

3.06

1.74

cent). This also resulted in a large increase (7.38 per cent) in its commercial-to-residential tax ratio making it the fourth highest of the 11 cities surveyed with a 2018 ratio of 3.57. In Montréal, the school tax rate remained unchanged in 2018.

Vancouver: new taxes targeting foreign homebuyers and high-value residential properties For the 19th consecutive year, Vancouver remains the only city with a commercial-to-residential tax ratio in excess of 4:1, despite posting the largest decrease (-9.72 per cent). Even with the highest commercial-to-residential tax ratio, the region continues to post the lowest commercial and residential tax rates of the cities surveyed. This is largely due to Vancouver’s high property values compared to the other Canadian cities. Vancouver, along with the province of British Columbia, recently ramped up efforts to use local taxation to curtail demand for residential properties in an attempt to slow the increase in pricing.

The city of Vancouver has also announced three new taxes on property assessments: the Empty Homes Tax (1 per cent) which applies to dwellings that are deemed empty; the Speculation Tax Rate (0.5 per cent - 2 per cent) which mirrors the Empty Homes Tax except that it is applied to investors and there are different rates for local residents, Canadian

BLD D-N 19.indd 19

1.98

calgary edmonton sask atoon

Source: Altus Group

2.59

winnipeg regina

owners outside the province and foreign owners; and the Additional School Tax (up to 0.4 per cent) which comes into effect in 2019 and applies a 0.2 per cent rate on the residential portion assessed between $3 million and $4 million and a 0.4 per cent tax rate on the residential portion assessed over $4 million. These are circumstantial additions to the base residential tax rate, so they do not directly impact the 2018 ratio for Vancouver, however they do produce additional tax revenue for Vancouver.

Ontario: renters continue to carry disproportionate property tax burden In 2017, residential tenants were being taxed equally to homeowners (having ideal ratios of 1:1) in all cities surveyed, except for Montréal, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa. This year, Montréal improved their ratio to 1:1, however with the addition of Québec City to the 2018 report, there remain four cities where renters are being taxed at higher ratios compared to owner-occupied residential properties: Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Québec City.

Toronto and Ottawa, with ratios of 2.07 and 1.36 respectively, remain extreme outliers though both improved marginally over last year and with the election of the Ontario PC government in June 2018, the outlook on this issue remains in question. The Ontario Liberal

3.78

3.57 3.78

ottawa Toronto

Quebec cit y

montreal

government placed a freeze on multi-residential taxes for 2017 while it undertook a review on how to reduce the tax ratio, however it is not yet clear if the new government will act on this issue and implement a significant correction in the multi-residential ratio or choose to continue status quo.

Though we have seen significant shifts in several cities over the last year, the key finding from our annual Canadian Property Tax Rate Benchmark Report remains unchanged: several cities across Canada continue to shift the burden of property taxes to business owners.

Each municipality is faced with the ongoing challenge of attempting to balance the tax burden while recognizing that bringing down the commercial property tax rate has benefits beyond making their cities more appealing to businesses, as it also helps create jobs and leads to sustainable revenue for the city, which is a win for everyone. There is no question that this can’t happen overnight, but the aim of keeping the conversation going is to influence the dial to move to a more balanced position that will reflect the true needs of cities; a thriving and growing business community where commercial properties are not overburdened by disproportionate property taxes.

Terry Bishop is president of Property Tax Canada, Altus Group

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Striking the Perfect Balance Architects marry latest technology with historical integrity in massive renovation project at Parliament Hill.

By Thomas Renner Successful marriages are built on

compromise, integrity, and togetherness.

Couples who work together as a team recognize flaws and are able to iron out the differences and blend together to build a harmonious and lasting bond. While there may be imperfections beneath the surface, the united, visible front stands resolute, stable and enduring.

The challenge for architects, engineers and construction officials in the Public Services and Procurement Canada-led renovation of Parliament Hill’s West Block were similar to the tests endured in matrimonial matters. The seven-year, $863-million project finally wrapped up this fall, uniting the charm of a Victorian Gothic structure that was completed in 1865 with the sophisticated technological advancements of 21st-century construction. During the renovations, architects looked at every conceivable angle to modernize the facility while also maintaining the building’s historical integrity. It was not an easy balance.

“The West Block was last renovated over 50 years ago,’’ said Georges Drolet, a partner in EVOQ and an architectural historian. The firm formed a joint ventured partnership in 1995 with Architecture 49 to plan and design the West Block Rehabilitation Project. “In that time span, all the expectations and standards of operating and working in a parliamentary office building changed, from security concerns to communications networks, energy efficiency targets, hazardous materials management, universal accessibility standards, broadcasting and public engagement programs and so on.

All this added to the wear and tear of a build-

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ing erected 100 years earlier. So as time went by, all those issues became pressing, hence the need for an overall, holistic rehabilitation of the building.”

Up to the Challenge Drolet said construction teams faced a multitude of issues in the massive project. Those issues included excavating in proximity and under the historic masonry of a load-bearing structure; concealed routing of mechanical and electrical systems; inserting new elevators; working within tight existing spaces; and meeting lighting and acoustic requirements

for the debating chamber within an open, previously exterior space.

The biggest challenges, however, may have been establishing seismic reinforcement and decontaminating the building from asbestos that was used extensively during the renovation in the 1960s. When Parliament Hill was constructed in the mid-1800s, little was known about fault lines, earthquakes and the potential for destruction. On June 23, 2010, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake was felt across Ontario and Québec, rattling homes and buildings as far south as New York City. The quake’s epicenter was only about 35 miles north of

Courtesy: EVOQ Architecture

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Photo: Manik Mati Photography

Courtesy: EVOQ Architecture

Ottawa, which considers earthquakes one of the five most serious threats, based on its geology and types of buildings, according to an article in the Ottawa Citizen.

“The building was never built for the seismic zone it’s in,’’ said John Cooke, who heads John G. Cooke Associates, an engineering consulting firm that partnered with Ojdrovic Engineering. Both companies were also involved in the restoration of Parliament Hill.

“A major fault line runs right through the building, and we had to upgrade the entire building to account for that. When the building was originally constructed, they never would have known about that.”

THIS SPREAD The $863-million restoration of the West Block of Parliament is one of the largest rehabilitation projects in North America.

EVOQ and Architecture 49 were mandated to conduct a Heritage Structure Report, conduct two pilot projects on the Southeast and North Towers, restore and rehabilitate the exterior envelope, and design a modern addition of an interim House of Commons under a glass canopy roof.

Cooke said major interventions were also required to remove asbestos. Although architects had expected to keep about 95 per cent of the plaster on the walls, because of asbestos removal, workers could only salvage about five per cent. “When they did the renovation in the 1960s, they packed it full of asbestos,’’ Cooke said. “It went everywhere.

It limited our ability to do the investigation prior to the asbestos being removed.”

Raising the Roof One of the most fascinating and unique projects in the overhaul of West Block was a complete roof overhaul. A striking, self-sup-

porting, curved glass roof stands overtop the central courtyard, which will serve as the tempora ry home for the House of Commons. The project by Seele included: 2,485 square metres of triple-glazed glass; 938 tons of steelwork for roof and tree columns; 2,554 square metres of laylight glazing under the roof; 871 square metres of movable louvres; 929 square metres of acoustic panels; and 1,813 square metres of opengrid flooring for a service catwalk at the roof level. The roofing project alone required more than two years of labour.

Several other roofing sections also required roof hatches to access attic space.

Aluminum roof hatches with copper cladding and prime painted galvanized steel hatches were custom-made by The BILCO Company of Connecticut and were installed on flat roofs and even on some seriously sloped steeples by Heather and Little and Covertite. “The hatches were a bit harder to install mostly due to the complexity of the design,’’ said Brian Marshall, a project manager for Heather and Little. “They were installed on a sloping roof that was in a near vertical position.”

Marshall said his team also installed fire-rated floor hatches, also manufactured

by BILCO, to gain access to attics and mechanical space, and ladder-up safety posts to help ensure safety for workers entering and exiting the roof hatches. The copper roof at West Block earned a North American Copper in Architecture award from the Copper Development Association and the Brass Development Association.

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Photo: Manik Mati Photography

Staying True to the Roots Perhaps the most essential task for architects and engineers in the renovation was overhauling the structure while remaining true to the historical integrity of the building.

Drolet said all interventions made on designated Federal heritage buildings have to comply with a national document, the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.

“Those guidelines provide very clear and detailed methodology to manage change within historic structures and sites in order to maintain their integrity,’’ he said. “It is not always easy but there are recognized ways to achieve it. Designing brand new buildings is not easy either. In the case of a historic site, architects set maintaining historical integrity as one of the project priorities from the start, ensure that construction is planned

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THIS PAGE The curved roof features 2,485 square metres of triple-glazed glass. Other wings of the project include roof hatches and floor doors manufactured

by The BILCO Company to allow access to new mechanical equipment installed at Parliament Hill.

accordingly and keep the goal on everyone’s radar until the end of construction.”

Architects and engineers also have to consider the tastes and opinions of the nation’s citizens and government officials. Dramatic changes would cause considerable consternation if some people felt that architects overstepped their bounds in making necessary improvements.

“Every part of the building that is historic has been carefully preserved and enhanced,’’ Drolet said. “In some ways, the West Block recovered heritage character that it had lost inside and outside, so it may have even more ‘historic charm’ than it had before the project started.”

The Final Pieces In the past, a demolition of the existing structure had been considered. Drolet said a proposal in the early 1960s was made to replace the aging Gothic Revival building with a

brand-new glass construction. “Fortunately, the uproar that idea created led to rethinking the modernization project,” he said. “In the end, the exterior of the West Block was mostly retained but the interior was almost completely gutted. Since then, the building has been granted the highest heritage designation as a historic Federal government building.

Any proposed modification to the building has to be submitted to a very stringent review process that aims to protect its heritage character and value. In this context, demolition would never be permitted.”

With the finishing touches now being applied on the West Block, the focus will move to the Centre Block. It is expected to be closed in late 2018 for a multi-year restoration and modernization, similar to that done at West Block.

Drolet said the project at West Block carefully integrated high technical standards of technology, such as building systems and communication networks within the heritage structure while enhancing the historic character of the building and its site. Architects also created new spaces outside the footprint of the heritage structure. “The contemporary architecture creates a rich dialogue with the historic building without ‘stealing the show,’” says Drolet.

The interim Chamber, for instance, is set in an unconventional space that is unique in character, at the forefront of construction and systems and technologies, but also respectful of the traditions and protocols of the House of Commons. In essence, all of the teams involved in the project have weaved together the imperfect marriage of buildings designed in different centuries into one beautiful, harmonious, safe and technologically advanced structure.

“This was the most complex rehabilitation project ever executed in Canada,” says Drolet.

“It was done in one of the country’s most valuable heritage buildings. Each decision was analyzed, discussed and reviewed by dozens of professionals, specialists and project managers to make sure that the transformed West Block would meet the challenges of a 21st-century legislative function while celebrating its 19th-century origins. I believe that globally this goal is achieved.”

Thomas Renner writes on building, construction, and manufacturing for trade publications in the U.S. and Canada.

December 2018 /January 2019

2018-12-10 11:21 AM

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Affordable Housing New Construction Program Raimondo + Associates Architects Inc. (RAAI) is proud to have been involved with Enbridge for their recently completed 14-unit project in Thorold, Ontario for the Thorold Non-Profit Housing Corporation, which utilized Enbridge’s Affordable Housing New Construction Program (AHNC).

The client was able to take advantage of AHNC to lower the carbon footprint of the building and received funds to offset the capital expenditure and lower operational costs. The selected energy conservation strategies, coupled with Enbridge's AHNC incentives, helped to reduce incremental costs associated with the energy conservation strategy investments in this building and maintain the housing affordability over the long-term. By participating in AHNC, Thorold Non-Profit saves over $6,840 per year on annual energy costs. With the Enbridge incentive, this allows for a payback of 5.4 years.

Enbridge's AHNC program allows participants to enjoy costs they can manage and reap long-term benefits.

To learn more, visit EnergyEfficientAffordableHousing.ca.

BLD D-N 19.indd 23

Savings

By Design Program Elements Urban Condominiums, designed by Raimondo + Associates Architects Inc. (RAAI), is a development by Mountainview Homes and Astra Capital that utilizes the Savings by Design (SBD) program by Enbridge.

Participating in the program was enlightening and helpful for all members of the design team, providing benefits that go beyond financial incentives.

Mike Memme, Mountainview Homes: “The design charrette brought experts in the room that we would have never contacted otherwise. We were made aware of industry best practices and challenges and how builders were dealing with them. We were given a glimpse of future code changes and how to prepare for them. Having so many great construction minds in the room at the same time was exciting. The topics we discussed will change how we design every midrise building we’re involved with going forward.”

Art Rebec, ARC Engineering: “The charrette design process is an excellent way to quantify both the energy and operating cost differences between various HVAC options, system alternates, and architectural building envelope variations.”

To learn more, visit SavingsByDesign.ca.

2018-12-10 11:23 AM

Welcome to Our Cities. Please build.

St. Catharines and Welland take different approaches to put developers on the fast track. By Marco Marino & Lina DeChellis In the highly competitive arena where municipalities vie to land new development projects, two cities on Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula are scoring big wins by going the extra mile to make it faster and easier for companies looking to break ground on projects. Located just 20 minutes from each other, the cities of Welland and St. Catharines have taken slightly different, but equally effective, approaches to attracting business and cutting the red tape that can bog down development.

In Welland, a team that includes members of all major city departments steers development applications quickly through the approvals process. Meanwhile, St. Catharines created a project expeditor role to serve as the city’s point person for investors and developers: the first and only of Niagara’s 12 municipalities, and one of only a handful in Ontario, to have a full-time expeditor on staff.

The commitment to streamline development has paid off for both cities over the past couple of years, with millions of dollars of new investment and assessment growth that benefits the entire Niagara region.

With a large supply of serviceable land for greenfield builds, as well as brownfield options, Welland has earned a reputation as one of Ontario’s fastest cities to grant building permits and usher development projects to construction.

In some municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) it can take anywhere from 18 months to two years for companies to get the necessary approvals to build. In Welland, it takes a fraction of that time: commercial and industrial building permits

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are typically issued in less than three months; as little as four to eight weeks to get the green light for projects that meet planning and zoning criteria.

“It’s a great source of pride for us to get them in the ground as quickly as possible,” says Dan Degazio, Welland’s Director of Economic Development. “We know that the faster we can help them become operational, the greater return on investment they receive and the quicker our entire community benefits.”

Eliminating roadblocks and fast-tracking development provided the edge needed to convince nearly a dozen major enterprises to locate in Welland over the past couple of years. A few highlights include: •G eneral Electric built a 450,000-sq.-ft. multi-modal manufacturing plant earlier this summer. The property was purchased in the summer of 2016, with construction beginning a month later (the facility was subsequently sold to Advent Internationals, now known as INNIO); •B ritish Columbia-based Northern Gold Foods was looking for a location in Ontario to set up a food-processing facility in 2015. It purchased property in Welland that September, began construction of a 100,000-sq.-ft. plant a month later and started production the following year; •G erman-based hydraulics and fluidics company Hydac Corp. is investing approximately $3.7 million to expand its Welland manufacturing plant by 2019;

•B rampton Brick will be relocating a portion of its masonry products business to Welland in 2019.

In all, Welland’s pro-development approach has helped attract almost 1.5 million square feet of new industrial development since 2015.

These developments represent more than $400 million in private sector investment and 375 new jobs for the city, whose internal development team meets regularly to review projects and ensure that staff and key divisions are aligned in supporting the city’s growth and development agenda and are working collaboratively with investors. The development community is noticing.

Luxury condominium builder Plazacorp Investments has purchased four-plus acres of city-owned property that touches on King and Lincoln Streets for future commercial development, and in early July started work on a seniors’ residential complex fronting the Welland Canal. The development company does dozens of projects in cities across the province, but Yehuda Gestetner, president of Plazacorp’s commercial division, said Welland has been their most pleasant experience when it comes to managing the various regulations that guide development projects.

When planning for their senior’s residence, Plazacorp purchased the land, had the site rezoned, a site plan approved and shovels in the ground in less than a year. In other areas, that process can take two to three years.

“What’s unique about Welland is that they understand the importance of development,” said Gestetner. “They recognize they are a city

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THIS PAGE Above: An upscale 28-unit condo apartment at 26 Wellington St. in downtown St. Catharines, by Penn Terra Group. Below: The GE Brilliant Factory in Welland was quickly sold to Advent Internationals.

on the rebound and understand that with new development you bring jobs, you bring growth, you bring opportunity and you bring a better quality of life. They have a strong sense of building a community in Welland.”

Investor interest in the city’s industrial lands is also helping to generate interest in residential development. Based on city and region growth projections, the city is expected to increase by almost 19,000 residents by 2041, which would push the city’s population past 70,000. Last year, 223 new residential dwelling units were built in the city, the most in a decade. So far in 2018, there have been 128 residential units constructed, up from only 87 at this time last year. The city is on track to create 300 new units by the end of 2018.

“In addition to our incentive programs, businesses are benefitting from affordable land in Welland and Niagara, a skilled work force, multi-modal transportation options including highways and trade corridors to global markets, and access to leading research and innovation offered by Niagara College and Brock University,” said Degazio. “I speak with investors and developers every day, and I know how important these incentives are to their business plans and decisions.

They’re giving us a competitive advantage in a global economy.”

The Garden City builds In nearby St. Catharines, linked to Welland by Highway 406 and the Welland Canal, there is a similar commitment to clearing obstacles that can cause developers to look elsewhere to build.

Niagara’s largest city hired its first Project Expeditor in late 2017 to act as a conduit between city staff and developers, builders, investors, consultants and residents when dealing with significant developments and investments.

“We’ve made great progress improving our processes to support the building community and encouraging growth,” said Brian York, the city’s Director of Economic Development and Government Relations. “Bringing on a project expeditor has played an important role in securing a number of significant development projects.” Margaret Josipovic, who worked for the city as a planner since 2014, took on the expeditor role and serves as the city’s point person on major projects.

“Because of my planning background, I’m able to offer insight into the process and help proponents get ahead of any potential issues before they run into anything that will hold them up,” says Josipovic, adding that reaction from the building community has been extremely positive.

“We’re very busy. Once you start getting good results, developers and investors are very

quick to share information with each other.”

While commercial development has been going strong in Welland, residential construction is the segment that’s booming in St. Catharines. With limited greenfield opportunities, residential infilling and intensification developments — particularly condominium projects — have been keeping the city busy.

“When I came to Niagara, downtown St. Catharines was struggling,” said Sunil Bahadoorsingh, chairman of the Penn Terra Group Ltd. “Just like the city, we too took a leadership role investing in projects that will put people downtown. People living downtown are a key element to spawn growth.”

Penn Terra has invested heavily in downtown St. Catharines, pumping more than $50 million into three high-rise residential buildings, with a fourth high-rise building under development that will create 127 affordable housing units downtown on Church Street.

The demand for these new units is being driven in part by high housing prices in the GTA that are incentivizing people to look across the lake to realize their home ownership dreams. Last year, the Garden City issued permits for 569 new residential dwelling units, an increase of 50 per cent over 2016. This year is shaping up to be even stronger. The city expects to issue permits for projects adding up to more than $130 million.

“We’ve seen a big influx over the past couple of years of first-time homeowners looking to get on the property ladder, retirees who want to bank a portion of their profits from house sales in the GTA and families who are looking to spend more time enjoying life instead of worrying about huge mortgage payments and gridlock,” said York.

Though they may be separate municipalities with their own distinct identities, St. Catharines and Welland are strong partners on the economic development front and understand they are in a mutually beneficial relationship as members of the broader region of Niagara. “A win in Welland is a win in St. Catharines because in a regional economy, you don’t need to live in the city where you work,” said York.

“We can each help the other grow stronger.”

Marco Marino BAc., Ec.D., CEcD, is Economic Development Officer for the City of St. Catharines; and Lina DeChellis is Economic Development Officer for the Corporation of the City of Welland.

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special feature

Before

After

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LED street lights save The City of Hamilton $700,000 annually

By The Communications Bridge

F

or the City of Hamilton, Ont., energy management and environmental responsibility are top priorities.

In an effort to reduce maintenance costs and help improve safety with well-lit streets, the city decided to investigate a new street lighting solution for its aging high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures. Although there are more than 40,000 street lights citywide, Hamilton wanted to target a specific, 10,000-fixture area that had the highest energy-consuming lights in the city, and began investigating LED lighting for its long life and greater energy savings, trialing several manufacturers’ products to find the best solution.

Working with Tymat Solutions, who represents GE Lighting’s roadway lighting, the city researched alternatives to HPS light fixtures. “We tested nearly 500 light fixtures in the past year to find the best solution for the city’s roadways,” said Gord McGuire, Manager of Corridor Management with the City of Hamilton. “We’ve seen great improvements in LEDs over the past few years and felt it was the right time to retrofit the city’s lights.”

The Solution GE Lighting was awarded the phased LED retrofit program, and its Evolve LED street lights were installed by Enersource in the 10,000-fixture area. “Our experience working with GE was excellent, with top-of-the-line delivery, which put us in great shape to stay on track and complete the installation on time,” said George Matai, Senior Manager of Operations, Enersource. “Installation was easy and we had little to no issues with the fixtures.”

All of the lights were designed to meet the local sidewalk and road conditions, pole spacing and heights, and road classifi-

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cation. The design process led to a series of different GE fixtures being used across the city. “One significant benefit of working with GE included the ability to create a custom fixture,” said McGuire. “For areas where we had issues with pole spacing or not meeting lighting requirements, GE worked with us to find the proper solution.”

Not only is the city installing new lights, but Hamilton will also begin a trial this summer of GE’s LightGrid wireless outdoor lighting control system. City staff is eager to learn about LightGrid’s features, specifically energy metering, GPS inventory and overall controllability and dimming. The trial will run at least six months with the goal of expanding beyond the initial units.

Results “We’ve had a lot of great feedback from citizens and council members. They’ve said the quality of lighting on the roads and sidewalks has drastically improved, making citizens feel safer at night,” said Mike Field, Project Manager, Street Lighting & Electrical at City Of Hamilton. Officials plan for the city’s overall conversion to LED street lighting to be completed by the end of October, which is expected to save the city up to $700,000 in annual energy costs while delivering savings of more than 6.9 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per year, which is enough to power 720 homes each using 800 kWh per month. Along with major savings for the city, seeing GE’s facility in Hendersonville was a bonus for the customer. “We are encouraged to see GE making investments in their manufacturing facility,” said Field. “By controlling and manufacturing every component of the light, it lets us know GE is invested and will be around for a long time.”

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site visit Giving Back A historic landmark in Québec City finds new purpose through a thoughtful rehabilitation and respectful contemporary design.

By Shannon Moore

THIS PAGE The contemporary West Wing addition now houses federal government offices.

Its architectural language is largely grounded in the reinterpretation of materials and in volumetric interplay with the Armoury’s copper roof. Inspired by the east wing, it is clad in stone masonry while the openings are bays of similar dimensions.

Photography by Stéphane Groleau

Ten years after a devastating fire tore through its historic buildings, the Voltigeurs de Québec Armoury has reopened in Québec City. Successfully rehabilitated by engineers, collaborators and a consortium of architects — including Architecture49, DFS Architecture & Design and St-Gelais Montminy + Associés / Architectes — the Canadian Forces infantry regiment now combines carefully conserved architecture with refreshing contemporary additions.

Located near Vieux Québec and the Plains of Abraham where British and French empires battled in 1759, the Armoury is defined by its layers of history. In addition to an original 1887 château-style structure with wall dormers, pepperpot turrets, buttresses and a ridge crown copper roof, the building’s footprint also

included an impressive 1913-14 expansion.

Working together, the A49 / DFS / STM consortium needed to balance a restoration of the existing site with improved function for ongoing appreciation and use. “Technically speaking, the challenge was huge,” said Stéphan Langevin, partner at STGM and lead designer of the Armoury project. “The Armoury is one of the most iconic buildings in the city next to the Château Frontenac.

We analyzed every single stone and brick and asked ourselves if we could keep it.”

The overall scope of work consisted of restoring the 1913-14 east wing (where the regiment’s offices were located) and adding a footbridge that would provide public access to the Armoury and Battlefields Park beyond. From there, the team constructed

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THIS SPREAD (Clockwise from the top of this page) The reconstruction project included four main components: restoration of the east wing, dating from 1913-14, where the regiment’s offices are located; a footbridge leading to Battlefields Park and the addition of a new wing on the west side of the armoury; rebuild the drill hall as a multifunctional space and a new lobby on the south side of the building to support that space’s new activities; and the creation of a regimental commemorative hall for Les Voltigeurs de Québec.

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a commemorative hall adorned in regimental colours, added a new contemporary west wing to house federal government offices, and converted the old drill hall into a hightech multifunctional space. From an exposed wood roof to interior brick walls, stone masonry accents and copper vertical blinds, the design deliberately blends noble materials inspired by the original buildings in the rehabilitated and newly constructed spaces.

“All of our work was in keeping with the spirit of the old building,” says Langevin. “When

you visit the new multifunctional space, for example, you feel that you’re in the original Armoury. You can’t be anywhere else.”

In addition to aesthetic repairs and upgrades, the design team also tackled numerous structural necessities including earthquake and wind resistance, building code compliance, reinforcement, and of course, fire protection across every space. Decontamin­ ation and structural capacity issues to support a new copper roof were also successfully addressed.

In the end, the $104-million project saw some 700 people involved from planning to construction, with nearly 70,000 hours of work dedicated to architectural services alone. “The fire was devastating. We lost a part of our DNA that day, and the work that followed was the greatest challenge of many of our careers,” says Langevin.

“But the population is pleased. How satisfying it has been to play a part in giving back this important monument to the people of Québec.”

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view point Walk With Joy ULI Toronto’s Executive Director sees the increasing trend of regional insularity as a serious threat to intelligent municipal governance.

By Richard Joy

Richard Joy is Executive Director of ULI Toronto. Previously, he served as Vicepresident, Policy and Government Relations at the Toronto Board of Trade, and was the Director of Municipal Affairs and Ontario (Provincial Affairs) at Global Public Affairs.

Follow him on Twitter @RichardJoyTO or email at Richard.Joy@uli.org

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David Crombie liked to say that we don’t need regional governance in the Greater Toronto Area since we already have it: it’s called the Province of Ontario. In his eye, a benevolent provincial government with almost limitless constitutional powers negates the need for a formalized municipal structure or coordinating body at the metropolitan scale. It’s an odd thing to say for Toronto’s 1970s mayor, whose tenure coincided with the golden era of local democracy and regional government. I think he was wrong.

In the many decades after Metro Toronto’s population spilled over its former boundaries, we have allowed the expanded region to become so fragmented that no locally elected politician in the region has any responsibility beyond their own local jurisdiction. It’s a structure that has led to a political culture of regional division and parochialism.

The Toronto Region is arguably the least regionally coordinated of any comparable global urban region. It’s a serious problem that we have allowed to fester, and the symptoms of this failure abound. The recent 10year review of the provincial growth plan revealed a confusing patchwork of local land use policies. There exists no regionally led climate change strategy or social policy initiative. Economic coordination remains largely a subset of provincial strategy. Perhaps most frustratingly, transit planning and operations has largely neglected the need for a seamless integration to shift commuters onto mass transit, in spite of a decade of Metrolinx and the advent of the Presto card.

It is the failing of regional transit especially that now threatens to thrust us further toward wrong-headed solutions, tilting municipal governance away from its most important priority: local service delivery. Indeed, the Toronto Region Board of Trade is actively pushing to remove local representation entirely from transit operations and infrastructure planning.

While the new Ontario government does not seem interested in a full uploading of Toronto’s transit system, which constitutes over 70 per cent of all ridership in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, it is

rapidly advancing an election promise to upload Toronto’s subways. Post-election, this has expanded to include related land holdings of the TTC and possibly the broader planning around them. Further provincial intrusions into local planning jurisdiction are also highly anticipated, including the future of employment lands and the waterfront.

Strong cases can be made for the occasional provincial intervention into municipal authority. The imposition of a massive regional growth boundary, the Greenbelt, and the accompanying Growth Plan to curb urban sprawl and encourage intensification arguably qualify as good example for exercising such power. But like the emerging transit and planning takeover agenda, the Greenbelt and Growth Plan were not simply policy shifts; they were institutions of paternalism that ultimately weakened the very goal of regionalism that they sought to advance.

A strong regional governance structure should balance the micro with the macro, where the regional and local perspectives mutually respect each other. This is often best achieved when the democratic representation at each level aligns with the geography being governed, and better still, when there is cross-representation and leadership between both realms. The twotiered, Metropolitan Toronto government of 1954-1998, including the imperfect “glory days” of Mayor Crombie, is often considered a best international example.

Running the Toronto Region by provincial fiat will never achieve regional harmony and cohesion. Infantilizing local municipalities by removing such basic powers as planning transit infrastructure, and by not establishing any metropolitan governance model comprised of municipally elected leadership, the province threatens to further divide the region and foster local fiefdoms of inward looking leadership. This is not the governance model that will allow us to optimize the internationally competitive urban region that we have become. It will undermine it. It is not the model that follows the successes of our past. It’s a model that threatens our future.

December 2018 /January 2019

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