[rdaner]

I wonder if there is a technical reason why a new owner couldn’t apply for additional height?

 

[maestro]

I fully count on any new owner seeking more height. More height and more square footage just makes it more expensive and longer to construct and harder to finance construction and juggle the debt load over the extended period.

I wouldn't count on a new owner popping up for this as there are a hundred properties that will be bankrupt within five years if the market doesn't turn around. Just have to sit back and wait

 

[Northern Light]

The way to cut out entitlement-profiteering is to upzone the City, thereby taking the incentive out of it entirely. I too am bored to tears with every dipshit running a zoning shop too, but there's an underlying reality which explains why that cottage industry has taken hold here.

Sure, though I think 'use it or lose it zoning' would be a useful measure as well.

But...........can we please buy 1,200 acres of parks before we upzone the land and can only afford 300?

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

The way to cut out entitlement-profiteering is to upzone the City, thereby taking the incentive out of it entirely. I too am bored to tears with every dipshit running a zoning shop too, but there's an underlying reality which explains why that cottage industry has taken hold here.

I am painfully aware of that...but that still doesn't alleviate my annoyances of phony proposals in a city desperate for bold, dynamic and quality architecture. And to put it mildly.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Sure, though I think 'use it or lose it zoning' would be a useful measure as well.

But...........can we please buy 1,200 acres of parks before we upzone the land and can only afford 300?

It definitely would, yep. But depending on your timeline(s), that in isolation would still allow the zoning-cottage-industry to continue if achieved entitlement only expires after, say, 10 years. A year or two, and you're really cooking. Five I think makes the most sense.

Part of the issue is folks who paper zone but don't build often don't have a clue what they're doing, so they entitle things that don't make sense and inevitably need [sometimes significant] modifications down the line.

 

[AlexBozikovic]

If the city upzoned, and was able to reliably defend that zoning at the tribunal, many things would change. What would that process look like?

Meanwhile, can the city start locking in the key design aspects of proposals to avoid the bait and switch that we get almost every time?

 

[ProjectEnd]

If the city upzoned, and was able to reliably defend that zoning at the tribunal, many things would change. What would that process look like?

Meanwhile, can the city start locking in the key design aspects of proposals to avoid the bait and switch that we get almost every time?

Not at zoning because that's an SPA issue. Even then, getting Planning and Toronto Buildings, who verify that the agreement has been followed, is nary impossible. The latter fundamentally don't care about things like materiality and architectural cohesion because their primary MO is 'does this build edifice meet code'. They're technicians, not aesthetes.

 

[Northern Light]

Not at zoning because that's an SPA issue. Even then, getting Planning and Toronto Buildings, who verify that the agreement has been followed, is nary impossible. The latter fundamentally don't care about things like materiality and architectural cohesion because their primary MO is 'does this build edifice meet code'. They're technicians, not aesthetes.

I agree with what you're saying, based on the regime as it is, in Ontario.

But I do think there are planning tools from elsewhere we could incorporate.

Or, in the case of Condos, simply stating in law that building other than to the render marketed for sales constitutes criminal fraud, and allows the buyer at their sole discretion to demand a full refund with interest.

That, of course only works for condos, and only applies to the marketing render, not one submitted to Planning.

But there are tools in different prescriptive regimes that would allow for tight aesthetic controls; we see these in the U.S. all the time with Housing Owners Associations imposing things down to paint colour, cladding material and window style.

Now, that's often a boredom inducing circus and I'm not suggesting copying it per se; only that there are ways to write rules/laws to achieve that aim. But it would be a very big change here.