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Reverse Zone, weblog on urban planning, sustainability, and technology.
Martin Laplante
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Recent posts
- Canada and US Driving No Longer Dropping
- This Year Ontario No Longer Needs Coal
- Shaping the Public Realm
- The Days of Sprawl Are Officially Over
- The Telescope is Backward
- Stop The Earth
- Amazon CloudFront New Pricing, Cheap At A Million Dollars
- Canada Spends Billions in Energy INefficiency
- Density as Persons Plus Jobs Per Unit Area
- Now is the Time for New Transit Investments
- UNFCCC Confuses Journalists on Direction of Greenhouse Gases
- Canadian Business Prefers Carbon Tax
- Streets To Home: Down With Continuum of Care!
- Close Roads to Reduce Congestion
- Science and Economics of Climate Change
- Canada and US Driving Continue To Drop
- Alberta Overtakes Ontario in Coal-Fired Generation
- Everyone Not Living In The Suburbs Is Fooling Themselves
- Canada Almost Studies the Possibility of Eventual Road Pricing
- Rogers Messing with DNS
- Will Canada Reach Kyoto Targets With New GHG Inventory Figures?
- The Delicate Balancing Act of Downtowns and the Death of Griffintown
- Internet Identity Keystone Kops
- LA Transit Plan Aims to Save 725 Metric Tons of GHG Annually by 2030
- New York City's Congestion Pricing Plan Dies Yet Again
- New York Discovers Existing Direct Democracy Zoning Rule
- Driving is Going Down in the US
- The Commuting Turnaround in Canada
- Vancouver Churches Get a Licence to Break the Law
- Carbon Capture and Storage For Canada
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Complete List of Posts
Top Posts
- Close Roads to Reduce Congestion
- The Delicate Balancing Act of Downtowns and the Death of Griffintown
- Places to Grow - Pictures Tell the Story
- Why We Still Need Separation of Uses
- Dense Condos Do Not Revitalize
- Hot Air - How to Beat Climate Change By Burning More Coal
- What's Best for Renewables, Merton Rule or Feed-In Tariff?
- LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Rating System
- Main Arterial Woonerf
- More on Which is Greener, Houses or Apartments?
- Which is Greener, Houses or Apartments?
- Zoning Exceptions and the Failure of Planning
- 18th Century Planning is Still the State of the Art
- Ontario Municipal Board Says City Can't Plan for Mix or Density of Mixed Use
- Brownfield Brutalism - Urban Planning for Sale
- The Causes of Sprawl
- Energy Star Sprawl
- Is High Density the Cure for Transportation?
- Why not Build Medieval Towns Here?
- Vancouver has it right - Ecodensity
- Ontario has it wrong - Places to Grow
- Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and Barry Wellman
- Review of This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America
- New York's Downzoning Uprising
- Community Planning - are citizens powerless?
- Paris riots and urban planning
- Minimize Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Reverse Zoning
- Social Sciences: So Much Left Undone
Ontario Municipal Board Says City Can't Plan for Mix or Density of Mixed Use
In a recent decision of the Ontario Municipal Board, the body set up to appeal certain municipal decisions, the City of Toronto was essentially told that once it determines that an area is mixed use, it loses the right to determine what the mix should be or what the density or the distribution of uses can be.
This is a major setback to the ability to achieve smart growth: past decisions have always allowed this in both residential-only and employment-only land.
The decision comes after a high-rise project on Queen Street West which had been changed by city planners to redistribute the density and put minimum and maximum proportions of business and residential uses, was appealed, with the developer facing off against the city and the residents.
The Ontario Municipal Board approved essentially the developer's original plan for several towers (between 10 and 26 storeys) in a Victorian-era neighbourhood characterized by art galleries, low-rent studios and retail stores. The official plan and planning decisions were intended to protect the character of the neighbourhood, and in particular the ability to live and work in the same area.
According to the Board's decision, "If the City is intending to rely on the securing of a specific amount of employment land use on individual sites based on a quantifiable goal for each planning area, district or neighbourhood, [...] designation of exclusive employment districts offers a more objective approach in that regard." In other words, if you want the right to do planning, you must stick to separation of uses.
The board ordered the city not only to approve the development, but to change its official plan to remove limits on density and on mix of uses. Needless to say, I think this decision is appalling and makes it impossible to implement smart growth strategies in Ontario.
http://www.omb.gov.on.ca/e%2Ddecisions/pl060443%5F%230053.pdf
Tags: Urban Planning Urban Design Smart Growth OMB