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City wants cap on new homes
Feb. 23, 2005
- Brampton Guardian
In an unprecedented move, city councillors have announced plans to slow residential development by putting a cap on the number of homes built in the city each year.
Residents will be given a chance to voice their opinions in the coming weeks at public meetings.
The announcement came Monday as councillors and Mayor Susan Fennell admitted the city does not have a handle on the unparalleled growth Brampton has been experiencing in recent years.
"The days of building whatever you want, whenever you want and as many as you want are over," Fennell announced at the Planning, Design and Development Committee meeting Monday afternoon.
"I think it is time the City of Brampton takes control of its growth instead of the growth controlling us and that is what has been happening," agreed Councillor Gael Miles. "It has just been too much, too fast."
A bold step
Calling it a bold step, Fennell said the 5,500-unit cap, which will be phased in by 2007, will allow the city to approve "quality, sustainable and affordable development" in the coming years. Last year, 9,500 units were approved, although that number was called a one-time high from the estimated 7,300 as developers rushed to get applications in before the city's new development charges bylaw took effect. The estimated average without a cap is around 6,500.
"I'm not going to tolerate unbridled growth or unbridled tax increases," said Fennell, who moved the motion supporting a cap. The motion passed unanimously.
The cap will only apply to "greenfield" development, meaning new subdivision development. It will not apply to infilling, the downtown core or the Queen Street Central Corridor. Also, it will not apply to commercial or industrial development.
How the cap will be applied will be worked out in concert with an Official Plan review and consultation with residents and the development industry. In the coming weeks, meetings will be organized by the city to get public input and input from the industry. There is also a committee being set up.
The city's plan is to make an amendment to the Official Plan and have that done and approved this year, making the cap official.
"We want it done this year so it works, it's credible, it has integrity and it respects the citizens of Brampton," Fennell said.
It is expected development will be allowed based on priority areas identified by the city, with several criteria in mind including areas:
* easily serviced by extensions to existing infrastructure to avoid "leapfrogging";
* that provide a mix of housing;
* that include higher, transit-supportive densities that minimize sprawl and add fewer cars onto local roads;
* with open space and with recreation facilities that are planned, programmed and funded;
* that provide some form of employment lands, which will increase the number of residents who live and work in the city.
The cap announcement caught housing developers off guard.
"It's still sinking in because it really did come out of nowhere," said Stephen Dupuis, executive vice-president of the Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association. "We were completely in the dark about it. I got an inkling Thursday."
He said if it is the beginning of a trend in the GTA, housing prices will rise.
"It seems pretty clear that it's going to be approved," he said, adding it seems to be only the details and the 'how' that will be discussed in the consultation.
He said if the mayor had announced a freeze, the industry would definitely challenge it at the Ontario Municipal Board, but a cap at 5,500 is a different situation.
"That's a healthy amount of growth," he admitted, although he did not rule out a challenge.
Industry needs time
Hayden Matthews from Great Gulf spoke at the committee meeting on behalf of the industry, saying everyone needs time to read the staff report and understand its implications.
"The industry very much wants to be involved and we look forward to that consultative process and we will participate to the fullest extend that we are capable," he told councillors
"I don't believe the sky is going to fall in when you look at the historic numbers," said Wards 1 and 5 Councillor Elaine Moore. If there is a better way, she said, she hopes that will be put before council and staff in the next eight weeks for consideration.
Brampton's construction numbers have been hitting record highs, and in 2004 the city topped the national list for residential construction value at more than $2 million. It has left the city scrambling to keep up with the delivery of infrastructure. Both money and staff time are in short supply.
The city has received, but not yet processed, applications to build another 17,800 housing units. Without a cap, those homes would be built within the next five years and the city would be completely "built-out" in 11 years, according to a Hemson Consultants report on Brampton's future growth. With a cap, the city would experience "medium growth" with build-out by 2018. The city's previous forecasts had the city following what Hemson called a "low growth" scenario with built-out by 2023.
Build-out for the city is 200,000 more units, or 280,000 more people. Brampton's current population is approximately 387,000.
That's seven years faster than the city's predictions from just two years ago when council adopted a Growth Management Program (GMP). That GMP was supposed to help city staff manage escalating growth, but now they say it isn't enough because it doesn't look at the big picture, only at individual applications and Secondary Plans. The cap will be citywide, and, along with the Official Plan review, will help manage growth in all corners of the city at the same time.
"My community doesn't understand the elements of the GMP (Growth Management Program)," said Moore. "They understand a cap. They haven't seen any benefits (from the GMP). Their neighbourhood roads are clogged solid, their recreation centres are old and tired and overused, their schools are being used as holding schools.
"It's time to put it in terms they will understand and they will feel the benefits from."
She said residents living in the older parts of the city, including the residents she represents in Wards 1 and 5, "don't care if one more house gets built in the City of Brampton." City staff is spending so much time and resources trying to deal with new development, the residents in those existing areas feel they have been forgotten.
"Our staff are literally consumed with the new development of this city," she said.
Wards 9 and 10 Councillor John Sprovieri, who represents one of the areas in the city experiencing rapid growth, said residents in the newer areas have their concerns, too.
"All of us are hearing from our residents. You should hear the new residents about the provision of amenities, especially things like libraries. We haven't built one in the new growth areas."
He noted a library is planned for Springdale in 2008/09.
"People are screaming about the community centres," Sprovieri said, noting the centre at Dixie Road and Sandalwood Parkway is nearing construction.
He said he hopes the cap and Official Plan review will help with a solution for those issues, too.
Brampton is under extreme pressure in the GTA with the most land available for development at more than 5,000 hectares. Dupuis said it is ironic that the city announced a cap at the same time the province announced more detail on its growth management plan. The province's plan "trumps" any municipality's Official Plan, he noted.
Fennell stressed the importance of the consultation process.
"In my view, the cap is not the only way. I think we have to be flexible, " she said. "We have to make sure we are consulting with our partners who we need, otherwise, they will just challenge the cap. We have to do this well. This will not be about first come, first served, it will be about quality development and development where we want."
City staff believes they can defend a cap at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing if there is a challenge. Even with a cap, the city would still be fulfilling provincial requirements to have three years worth of housing inventory ready to be developed.
New growth impacted the 2004 city budget to the tune of $12.3 million, but it only brought in $8 million in assessment, leaving the city to pay a growth price tag of $4.3 million. The city will hold its first 2005 budget meeting Monday night, but figures for this year were not available this week.
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