Let's Make a Deal! - Recapping our Section 37 event

On April 25th, we were pleased to host Patrick Devine (a development lawyer) and John Gladki (an urban planner) to explore the ins and outs of Section 37 of the Ontario Planning Act.

Section 37 allows your local government to set rules around negotiating with developers when they ask for permission to build with more height or density. The community can negotiate for local community benefits like: providing affordable housing, replacing rental units, protecting heritage buildings, adding cultural centres, streetscape improvements, adding public art, and more.

John Gladki

We set half of the night aside for your questions, and we were impressed as usual at the enthusiasm and insight that our audience members bring to their questions!

Esel Panlaqui of Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office Anne Gloger of East Scarborough Storefront  

Press

Let's Make a Deal, Torontoist:

Let’s all check our language, Gillian Mason told the room of planners, students, and community members last night. The director of the Centre for City Ecology, she instructed us to expunge any jargon from our speech and to raise a hand if something wasn’t making sense to us. This was going to prove difficult, as the topic of the evening’s discussion was the often murky, you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours dealings of Section 37 of the Planning Act—the one which allows the City to barter extra density or height on a development site in return for agreed upon community benefits.

Section 37 (PDF), Novæ Urbis Res:

Developers and the community are often interested in discussing Section 37 benefits earlier on in the development approval process. However, councillors and planners wait until development plans are finalized to more accurately quantify the added value of permitting increased height and density to better position the city in the negotiations…

The purpose of zoning is to protect what exists, encourage appropriate standards and a mix of uses, while minimizing negative external effects, not necessarily to anticipate future development potential, explains Gladki. Even if the city's outdated zoning was updated to better reflect current development practice, it wouldn't necessarily eliminate Section 37 agreements.

Photos and Recordings

This event was recorded and we are working on editing it so we can release it as a podcast. If you would like to be notified when it is available, you can join our mailing list.

You can see more photos from this event in our Let's Make a Deal Flickr set.

Presentations

Download PDFs of the PowerPoint presentations:

Shall we do this again?

We are exploring the possibility of bringing this event to other Toronto neighbourhoods. If your organization is interested in co-hosting an event like this with us, please contact Heather Ann Kaldeway at heatherann@cityecology.net

Join the City Builder Book Club, starting February 1st!

Starting on Wednesday, February 1st, the City Builder Book Club will start with our first book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. We would love to have you join us! We are reading 1–2 chapters per week: Check out the schedule on the website!

Staff of the Centre for City Ecology and Creative Urban Projects will blog about the book each week. We will also have guest posts from urbanists, architects, town planners, designers, academics, and city builders of all kinds. On Fridays, members of the mailing list will receive a weekly wrap-up of the posts and discussions about that week's chapters, as well as a selection of related materials highlighted for us by the Toronto Public Library.

In this book, Jane Jacobs demonstrates the value of the experiences of people who live and work in cities. We welcome you to strengthen our discussion of this book by joining the conversation on our blogon Facebook, and on Twitter. Your experience in your own city is a valuable part of this conversation about what makes a city welcoming and vibrant.

If you don't yet have a copy of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, you can:

We will be reading chapter by chapter rather than page by page, so you will be able to follow along no matter whether you have a crisp new copy of the recently released 50th Anniversary Edition or an older much-loved, creased and highlighted copy!

Catching up with our City Builder Camp communities

As many of you know, on 17 September 2011, 120 people met at City Builder Camp to hear about existing challenges in St James Town, Mount Dennis, and Yonge & Bloor. Community representatives presented about their neighbourhoods and heard advice and feedback from urban planners, community organizers, architects, and developers who had volunteered their time for the day. CCE has been meeting with these communities again, to hear how City Builder Camp has affected their work and to see their neighbourhoods in person.

St James Town

Community Matters and U for Change, two local community groups, recently led CCE on a walking tour in St James Town. At the start of our tour, Chris Coshan of Community Matters showed us the original model of St James Town, now located in Rose Avenue Jr. Public School:

They found the City Builder Camp helped to focus their subsequent community conversations. As the community worked on their presentation to the Camp, they were able to combine the voices that represent both those who focus on social justice issues with those most concerned with development pressures.

Since City Builder Camp, they have developed greater clarity around their priorities, which they have been able to map. With this map of priorities for improvements they have already made some headway. The input provided by practitioners and the exercise of thinking about their community at the Camp has enhanced their capacity to focus their consultations with developers in the neighbourhood.

As we walked around St James Town, we were very impressed with the infrastructure that already exists, and the changes that are being made due to community efforts. The community has successfully added:

Yonge & Bloor

In December, we met with the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, which is facing many development pressures. They told us that their main take-away from City Builder Camp was the focus on “how to get from NIMBY to YIMBY” and that this has affected their approach since September. They also deeply appreciated the opportunity to have such a positive and productive conversation with architects, planners, and developers as they shared their insights with CWNA at City Builder Camp. Thank you to our panel members for making this possible!

CWNA at City Builder Camp

Since the Camp, CWNA has held a community planning exercise which was attended by 80 community members and covered topics including development, safety, place-making, and heritage. As a community, they have now developed a shared vision for their neighbourhood. To increase their ability to realize that vision, they are strengthening their approach by developing and adopting both a strategic plan for the neighbourhood and for their association. Creative approaches are being taken to hosting events that will enable developers, planners, and community members to work together towards a public vision for how Yonge Street could become a Great Street.

Mount Dennis

We met with Rick Ciccarelli and Marabelle McTavish of the Mount Dennis Community Association this past week for a tour around their neighbourhood. Here you can see Rick telling Gillian and Marabelle about the last remaining building on the Kodak lands:

As we drove around the neighbourhood, we realised that our maps at City Builder Camp had masked two things about Mount Dennis:

  1. It’s really big! Unlike those in St James Town and Yonge Street, this tour required a car due to the scale and shape of the neighbourhood.
  2. It is riddled with barriers, both natural and human-created. It is crisscrossed by two ravines, parallel railway tracks, wide arterial roads, a cut flood relief channel, and lots of steep hills. Within the sections created by these crisscrossing barriers, residents have access to services and shops, but each section is seriously disconnected from the others, at least for pedestrians!

This photo illustrates one of the challenges this community is facing:

"The wall”, which we heard about at City Builder Camp, is along the southern edge of the 57 acre vacant Kodak lands. It forms the northern retaining wall for Eglinton Ave which as you can see tunnels underneath the railway (we took this photo from the railway bridge). In the plans, of course, is the proposed Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown Line. Add this to the above challenges and you can quickly imagine the complexity of the discussion about whether to opt for a subway or an LRT and where it should go. More fascinating work ahead for the community and CCE.

If you would like to assist any of these communities or learn more about them, please contact us at info@cityecology.net and we will connect you with them.

Transportation Month: Mobility Pricing Stakeholders Forum

Photos from MobiliTO

Yesterday was the final Tranportation Month event: Transport Futures' Mobility Pricing Stakeholder Forum. As usual, Toronto's urbanist Twitter crowd was there!

Tweets from Mobility Pricing Stakeholder Forum

HilaryHolden Am here at the Transport Futures event in downtown listening to Marty Collier's welcome #ArupTO #TransportFutures

HilaryHolden Marty says Chatham House rules apply so no meaty tweets from me today #ArupTO #TransportFutures

caasco At Transport Futures conference listening to Kurt Van Dender, from the Organization for Ec Dev & Co-operation on road pricing and gas taxes.

HilaryHolden What do you think of mobility pricing? I can ask your Qs to the experts. Kurt van Dender from OECD speaking now #ArupTO #TransportFutures

marcpaulg @HilaryHolden How is technology supporting equitable pricing? Should ratepayers pay additional tolls for municipal roads or only visitors?

HilaryHolden Fair=efficient when it comes to mobility pricing #ArupTO #TransportFutures

TessKalinowski Support for road pricing increased from 30% before trial to 70% after implementation, says psychologist at Road Pricing forum

TessKalinowski Stockholm voters approved td pricing impementation after they saw the benefits in a pilot.

kristinmichi It's how we package pricing that matters. People don't know how much they've paid in in income tax but know to the dollar property taxes

kristinmichi 'Scale and time your plans to the political times'

kristinmichi Congestion pricing is intended to relieve congestion. #TransportFutures #moveTO

kristinmichi Congestion charging is to improve journey times, and reliability for motorists. To be palatable, congestion must be a severe problem TODAY

HilaryHolden In Stockholm, everyone pays congestion charge but commuters able to deduct from income tax. Efficient AND fair? #ArupTO #TransportFutures

kristinmichi Lessons of congestion charging from Stockholm being discussed here at #TransportFutures #moveTO pricing mobility forum

kristinmichi Higher prices can still reduce volume of trips even in absence of alternative travel choices

kristinmichi Good traffic model needed, to recognize heterogeneity of trips, otherwise pricing won't work

kristinmichi Avoid technology driven solutions, also need a simple to understand system

kristinmichi Congestion pricing is expensive, so be careful of promising revenue neutral solution

kristinmichi Pricing must be responsive to demand. Need to address equity issues. #mobility pricing conference

kristinmichi ...saying the Toronto Star has been a vehicle for change Eg new deal for cities, gas tax. Use the Star to galvanize and rally support

kristinmichi Taxpayers Association in favor of road pricing as long as money goes to improvements, i.e. not a money grab

HilaryHolden The importance of parking outlined by Parking Processional of the Year 2010 Dennis Burns #ArupTO #TransportFutures

caasco Dennis Burns, at Transport Futures, talks parking. USA study estimates that 30% of traffic in a city caused by people looking for parking.

TessKalinowski Oakville Mayor Rob Burton at road pricing forum today.

OakvilleMayor In basement of T.O. hotel for Transport Futures Forum on future (if there is one) of tolls, gas taxes, parking. Or will everything be free?

Ruffell78 @OakvilleMayor You in favour of tolls for driving into T.O.?

@OakvilleMayor @Ruffell78 Well, not certain yet. We all need/want personal mobility. Need pick how to pay: progressive, regressive, proportional tax/fees?

OakvilleMayor .@Ruffell78 Plus, how do you want the external costs handled? If user/causer pays, will behaviour be more responsible?

Ruffell78 @OakvilleMayor I'd switch to transit if I had to pay $5+ congestion toll and higher parking fees. Would need to address GO crowding though.

OakvilleMayor @Ruffell78 Crowding (full seats + full standing on my GO ride) at 7:30 am was most impressive.

Maiseach @oakvillemayor @alanjohnston Just weighing in ~ Bus Fare increase to $3.25 is steep... even $3.00 was steep! #Oakville #transit

alanjohnston @Maiseach @oakvillemayor #Oakville #transitonly cash fare increasing. Last increase was in Jan 09. All tickets, passes etc remain the same

@OakvilleMayor @alanjohnston @Maiseach Cash fare frozen for last three years. Costs, not so much. Equivalent of an average 2% per year increase.

arnoldadam Kurt Van Dender from OECD talks principles of #mobilitypricing at Transport Futures forum. We must recognize full external costs of cars.

arnoldadam Kurt Van Dender: Cost of driving in US: 11 cents/mile, only 8% related to fuel.

arnoldadam Van Dender: acceptance is a hard constraint but perceptions change and can be managed to an extent. #mobilitypricing

ralphtorrie Van Dender at Transport Futures says reliability loss as big a cost as time loss from traffic congestion #transportfutures

HilaryHolden Good to see @TessKalinowski at #TransportFutures. Royson James here this afternoon #ArupTO

TessKalinowski Wonder what Pembina's Cherise Burda is thinking of OEDC's Van Dender's contention that rd pricing isn't the way to improve air quality.

ralphtorrie Schade at Transport Forum in Toronto: people weigh loss aversion over potential gains when assessing risk. #transportfutures

caasco Transport Futures: Jens Schade, from Dresden, talks acceptability of mobility pricing strategies: public opinion, trust and risk aversion.

arnoldadam Jens Schade #transportfutures: support for mobility pricing increases significantly post implementation. See London, Stockholm and more

TessKalinowski There's a missing reg gov't that can transcend ocal opposition to congestion charges. Star's Royson James

TessKalinowski When invited to rd pricing conf "I got the impression my role would be crzy uncle @the family dinner" Greg Thomas, taxpayers Fed

caasco "Theory vs Practice" on road pricing issues, Michael Fenn speaking now. #transportfutures.Gearing up for panel session we are on this aft.

kristinmichi Panel discussing pros and cons of pilot project to help with public acceptability

kristinmichi Panel agrees that money collected from road pricing must provide tangible benefits

kristinmichi Dennis Burns talking of interesting parking solution in Nashville. Parking management authority manages private and public parking spaces

arnoldadam Dennis Burns, KHA: 30% of traffic in a city caused by people looking for parking. #mobilitypricing

arnoldadam UCLA study: searching for parking in a 15 block area of LA over one year generated an additional 950,000 miles travelled.

arnoldadam Dennis Burns: Performance based parking pilot in San Francisco continually adjusts on street parking charges according to monthly demand.

arnoldadam @CabbagetownMatt: refers to people cruising round an area actively looking for parking. Comes from D.Shoup's book on free parking

kristinmichi Supply of parking spaces and revenue from parking charges shared between public and private sector

kristinmichi Audience member points out that parking is very expensive to operate. Green P is 60 cents on dollar. Not a cash grab

kristinmichi Lots of interest, so many attendees at #TransportFutures Mobility conference pic.twitter.com/B4K1Zcws

kristinmichi Gas tax may not necessarily address congestion. Instead it drives investments in fuel efficiency

kristinmichi Joe tierney says it's 'criminal' we don't have national transportation strategy #TransportFutures

Snapshot of MobiliTO, and "Jane Jacobs, Vogue covergirl"

MobiliT.O.: Getting to the Core, a design workshop hosted by CCE and the Ontario Association of Architects last Saturday, resulted in lots of great discussions and interesting images! 

We had some fantastic presentations in the morning by CCE's Gillian Mason, OAA's Sheena Sharp, Joe Berridge, five students from the University of Toronto's Workshop in Planning Practice class, and Chris Hardwicke. After that, we had a day full of discussion groups and design exercises where we worked on mobility solutions that balanced the needs of people who are walking, biking, driving, taking transit, driving taxis, and making deliveries in downtown Toronto.

We'll be posting more images and video soon. For now, here's a snapshot of the day from Twitter!

#MobiliTO Tweets

chrisjamesdrew Now at #mobiliTO conference: getting to the core. It's being held at 401 Richmond. Looking fwd to a great transportation discussion!

exhibit_change At MobiliT.O. Hosted by @TOcityecology to rethink the conversation of mobility. Bringing all transit issues together.

CabbagetownMatt Good turnout at #MobiliTO for the design charette: getting to the core.

chrisjamesdrew Timeline of transportation improvements + initiative in #Toronto: transit, roads, walking, #BikeTO #TOpoli lockerz.com/s/157542475

CabbagetownMatt Joe Berridge providing an optimistic backgrounder for planning in #TO at #MobiliTO

chrisjamesdrew Joe Berridge at #mobiliTO: we often complain about #Toronto. But compared to what? #Barcelona = 50% youth unemployment #NYC= expensive

exhibit_change When comparing Toronto to other cities that are beautifully designed we need to remember that Toronto still has a lot going for it.

exhibit_change "All the best city/community initiatives are done outside of council." #mobiliTO

chrisjamesdrew Joe Berridge: "City is built on optimism". Good quote! #urbanplanning #cities #moveTO #mobiliTO #TOpoli

CabbagetownMatt "Need to create a positive constituency towards taxing ourselves." J. Berridge #MobiliTO

exhibit_change Would paying fees or tolls make you think twice before taking your car out? #MobiliTO

chrisjamesdrew .@Metrolinx's mobility hubs is exactly what we need - Joe Berridge. "Think small: #walkTO. Think big: the Big Move." #mobiliTO #moveTO

CabbagetownMatt Joe Berridge telling a brilliant, hilarious story about Jane Jacobs (Vogue covergirl) and her secret vice. #MobiliTO

KingSumach_O @CabbagetownMatt Is Jane's secret vice going to remain a secret? Anticipation of hearing what it is is killing me.

CabbagetownMatt Sorry @KingSumach_O we all swore a blood oath. Don't worry though, @goldsbie will have it sussed within the hour, I'm sure. :)

exhibit_change Awesome fact of the day. Jane Jacobs was on the cover of vogue 1942. #MobiliTO @TOcityecology

JanesWalkPhx @exhibit_change Do you know what month? Any images online? ^ya

exhibit_change @JanesWalkPhx @TOcityecology we will find it! Jane Jacobs super model!

Wait... Jane Jacobs was on the cover of Vogue Magazine??

We're just as curious as you are! So we started asking around.

So far, it seems that while Jane was not on the cover of Vogue Magazine, she did have a photo shoot with them and they published several of her articles. We are working with the Toronto Public Library to find out more and we promise to report back.

As for her secret vice, our lips are sealed!

More MobiliTO tweets

CabbagetownMatt Watch out for these bright, young names in the world of city planning in the future. #MobiliTO #UofT pic.twitter.com/6l3YWNNs

chrisjamesdrew Students from #UofT's planning school now presenting at #mobiliTO. Very professional presentation. Planners are awesome! #Ryerson #York

CabbagetownMatt @chrisjamesdrew I don't remember being this smooth at that age....or at this age, for that matter! #plannersofthefuture #MobiliTO

chrisjamesdrew #completestreets and the "8-80" concept covered at #mobiliTO event. Design #cities for 8 year olds and 80 year olds. #urbanplanning #moveTO

chrisjamesdrew Innovations+best practices from #mobiliTO events: #HongKong's smart card, #Copenhagen's blue bike lanes, #Stockholm's piano stairs #moveTO

exhibit_change Best Practices #MobiliTO HK Octopus Card. Refillable transit card and rewards. Also apartment security key + loose change card!

exhibit_change Shift thinking from urban planning & architecture to service design. How do we change the movement rather than the physical? #MobiliTO

CabbagetownMatt Chris Hardwicke asks which trend we should be looking at; Complete Streets or Shared Space - diametrically opposed, same goal. #MobiliTO

CabbagetownMatt Our #MobiliTO break-out group is trying to improve mobility for drivers and couriers in downtown #TO - pretty sure we've got it sussed.

chrisjamesdrew I'm part of the "East 2" group. We're designing #BikeTO improvements for the downtown at #mobiliTO #TOpoli lockerz.com/s/157560546

chrisjamesdrew Tables of people working on developing ideas to improve transportation. Great way 2 spend a Sat #mobiliTO lockerz.com/s/157563722

chrisjamesdrew Oh yeah, I went there: keep Jarvis, dedicated BLs 4 Avenue, narrow Yonge. Live bold @kristynwongtam #mobiliTO lockerz.com/s/157565983

chrisjamesdrew One connection needed: Wellesley St W bike lanes and Hoskin Ave bike lanes. #BikeTO #mobiliTO #moveTO lockerz.com/s/157566956

chrisjamesdrew Now at a larger table. Time for collaboration and consensus among six modes and their needs! #mobiliTO lockerz.com/s/157568723

Walk_TO @chrisjamesdrew I hope it includes talk about walking as part of a transportation network ...

chrisjamesdrew @Walk_TO #walkTO on the agenda + one of the considerations. I included the idea 4 improving walking on Yonge from the Downtown Yonge concept

CabbagetownMatt 20+ engaged and intelligent thinkers, brainstorming improvements to mobility in #TO Love it. #MobiliTO

chrisjamesdrew Thxs+will do! RT @exhibit_change@chrisjamesdrew w/ his beautiful work of art- complete system-now go do it! t.co/azrIAXji #mobiliTO

CabbagetownMatt Dan Fisher of #ArupTO knocks it out of the park with a measured and rational statement about the necessity of mass transit in #TO #MobiliTO

exhibit_change True architects can draw upside down! Working to create zones. #MobiliTO lockerz.com/s/157601044

chrisjamesdrew Group presentations. Our group mention integration, had some fun thinking about often forgotten modes of transport: taxis+couriers #mobiliTO

chrisjamesdrew #BikeTO improvements map left, downtown #TTC improvements map right. Compiled at #mobiliTO at @TOcityecology lockerz.com/s/157607839

HilaryHolden Loving the tweet updates coming in from @CabbagetownMatt and@chrisjamesdrew from #MobiliTO #moveTO #ArupTO

chrisjamesdrew It's map + idea sharing time @ #mobiliTO! Various ways of communicating visions all w/ the same goal: #moveTO lockerz.com/s/157608431

chrisjamesdrew Everything a street corner needs. Drawn in 15 minutes @ #mobiliTO at @TOcityecology#moveTO #cities #TOpoli lockerz.com/s/157609237

meslin Some pics from today's #MobiliTO workshop, hosted by@TOcityecology yfrog.com/o0zf9auj yfrog.com/kh3t9rij yfrog.com/nypmlwjj


Syndicate content

Other upcoming events

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Social Planning Toronto
Thursday, May 31, 2012 - 7:30am - 5:00pm
Transport Futures
Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 3:30pm - 5:30pm
East Scarborough Storefront

Twitter