Community News

THE SHARP EDGES OF URBAN DENSITY

We're not planning experts, and don't pretend to know how much is too much or the right amount for a residential neighbourhood.

But here's one thing that even we amateurs should be able to agree on:

We need more density across the board. Even with provincially-imposed urban boundary expansions, new development within the existing boundary is essential to meet provincial growth expectation targets.

So if this isn't going to be massive urban sprawl, which is unsustainable, it has to be increased density within existing neighbourhoods.

But once we all agree on that, in principle, the rubber meets the road.

It's one thing for citizens to say they understand and agree with the need to "densify," and it's another thing for them to accept that once they see what it looks like.

Once they see that the neighbourhood where they may have lived for decades, where they raised families, paid mortgages, went for countless walks and lived their lives, is going to look and feel different.

That has a way of tempering understanding and tolerance.

And so we have this process, where the developer and the municipality introduce a project, call meetings and get input from neighbours.

Very often, especially in this era where intensification is a key objective for nearly all cities, residents aren't happy with what they see, at least initially.

It would be easy to paint this discussion in black and white, but it isn't an accurate or fair portrayal. Developers are not in business to minimize profitability, quite the opposite.

So they propose development that best serves their purposes, with some consideration given to municipal and neighbourhood priorities. Typically, that adds up to big and tall, which isn't what the neighbours had in mind.

So they push back, hard. Sometimes they do it through their municipal representatives, sometimes they launch development appeals. Here's where the provincial government puts its finger on the scales. Those appeals end up with the Ontario Land Tribunal. And it rarely, if ever, decides on the side of municipalities and residents.

Most residents understand the need to intensify, they just don't agree on matters of scale and height. Most developers are not unreasonable people, but the more they compromise the more it impacts their bottom line. (Ask yourself, and answer honestly, if you'd be much different in that regard.)

All of this, warts and all, is just the modern reality we live in.

Urban development must and is changing. That means there are going to be disagreements, many tugs of war, and not everyone is going to emerge happy. W

hat rankles most, though, is that the final appeal mechanism is a stacked deck.

You cannot blame developers, the municipality or your neighbours for that. But it's not right or fair.

OPINION EDITORIAL

en-ca

2023-03-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281539410203562

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