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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 5.0pt;background:white;margin-left:0in;margin-right:3.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:19.2pt;background:white;border:none;padding:0in'><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:red'>FYI<o:p></o:p></span></i></p></div><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 5.0pt;background:white;margin-left:-.25in;margin-right:3.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:19.2pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:white;border:none;padding:0in'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#333333'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'><img width=9 height=9 src=PicExportError alt="*"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><i><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>15 Feb 2012 Copyright Ottawa Citizen NECO COCKBURN <o:p></o:p></span></i></p></div><h1 style='line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>New rules for re-zoned developments <o:p></o:p></span></b></h1><h2 style='margin-top:0in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Planning committee approves staff proposals so city can recover portion of increased land value<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Reservations remain about the city’s plan to take back some of the increased land value from major rezonings, a proposal its top planning manager calls a “culture change.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>At a meeting of council’s planning committee on Tuesday, community representatives called for changes to the plan for “Section 37 guidelines” that allow the city to recover a portion of the increased land value from a re-zoning in the form of community benefits. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>A developer, meanwhile, described the proposal as the city “having your cake and eating it too.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>In the end, the committee approved the guidelines as presented by staff. For Councillor Peter Hume, the committee’s chair, the opposing views heard from both sides show the city walked the middle line. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“I think that we’ve struck the right balance with the policy, and you know what? We’ll spend this year figuring out if we got it right, and if we didn’t get it right, people will be back to planning committee in a year’s time,” Hume said, referring to a review that is to be conducted during the first year of the policy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The city would expect in most cases to recover 15 to 30 per cent of the increased land value from a re-zoning, a staff report says. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The money would be taken for “community benefits” — either in cash or in the form of an amenity such as space for a new day-care centre or some other neighbourhood facility. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The committee voted down proposals put forward on behalf of Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes, who wanted to pin down when the benefits would have to be paid and to have Section 37 provisions kick in on smaller developments than staff proposed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Holmes’ ward includes Centretown and it regularly sees several projects that involve increased height and density, she said, and there’s a great need for the community to receive benefits. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“We have the least amount of green space in the city, there’s now very dense communities being created with very little in the way of social benefits, whether it’s health centres, or day cares or community centres, for example,” Holmes said. <a href="javascript:void(0)"><b><span style='color:white;text-decoration:none'>See page 26</span></b></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=art-legal1 style='line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:6.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Printed and distributed by NewpaperDirect | www.newspaperdirect.com, US/Can: 1.877.980.4040, Intern: 800.6364.6364 | Copyright and protected by applicable law.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border-top:1.5pt;border-left:1.0pt;border-bottom:1.5pt;border-right:1.0pt;border-color:#AAAAAA;border-style:dashed;padding:.25in 0in .25in 0in;background:white'><p class=art-annotation1 style='line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:#333333'> ‘We think it’s time to get on with the implementation and start collecting some benefits for the communities which are experiencing the joys and sorrows of intensification.’<br>LINDA HOAD<br>Hintonburg Community Association<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'><a href="javascript:void(0)"><b><span style='color:white;text-decoration:none'>From page C1</span></b></a> The guidelines are allowed under Section 37 of Ontario’s Planning Act, and Toronto has used them for years. Under this “made in Ottawa” approach, the guidelines would apply to projects of more than 7,000 square metres (about the size of a nine-storey building) where the city is approving a re-zoning that would increase the height or density allowed on a site by 25 per cent or more. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>If the requested re-zoning involves only a redistribution of the density that’s allowed on site (towers instead of short, squat buildings) and is considered to be an improved design, the guidelines would not apply. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Until now, agreements for community benefits have been obtained through more informal negotiations. The guidelines are meant to provide more certainty for the community, councillors and developers, staff said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The process would still involve negotiations, said John Moser, the city’s general manager of planning and growth management. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“Section 37 does not mean an automatic giveaway of height or density to the developer, nor is it intended to be a large money-maker or punitive to the applicant,” Moser said. He called the plan a “culture change and a new way of doing business for significant buildings.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Community groups cited problems around issues such as the thresholds for when the benefits should apply — wanting them to be lower — and ways that the amount of benefits that the city recovers from a developer might be reduced. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“Overall, we support Section 37 benefits in Ottawa, but we don’t believe that the current proposal is precisely the way to do it, and we’re hoping that more transparency and more clarity in the actual guidelines will be provided rather than having so much of this have to be negotiated behind closed doors and during rezonings,” said Jay Baltz, of the Federation of Citizens’ Associations of Ottawa-Carleton. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Linda Hoad, with the Hintonburg Community Association, said it also supports the implementation of the guidelines with some reservations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“In spite of those reservations, we think it’s time to get on with the implementation and start collecting some benefits for the communities which are experiencing the joys and sorrows of intensification,” Hoad said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Perhaps the strongest objection came from a developer. Michael Casey, from Arnon Corporation, said there are increased costs to builders. “You want to share in uplift that you’re creating. From all I’ve heard, you also want to do that in a fashion that I would best describe as having your cake and eating it, too,” Casey told the committee. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>His comments sparked a brief debate with Hume, who argued that developers get more money from higher units. “Yes, you have increased costs, but you should be getting increased revenues,” Hume said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Doug Casey of Charlesfort Developments was less confrontational, saying that overall the idea of Section 37 benefits to the community is good, but he wanted some clarifications from the committee. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The committee voted down amendments proposed by Holmes, who said she was concerned that the expected 15 to 30 per cent recovery amount set out in the staff report will become a “carved-in-stone amount” that makes it difficult to get more in particular cases, and called for the range to be 15 to 50 per cent of the increased land value. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Staff said the amounts in the report were meant to provide a general idea of what would be expected, and that more could be taken back, depending on the circumstances. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Holmes also said developers should have to provide the benefit payment when a building permit is issued, in order to be consistent and provide clarity for the community and developer. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Finally, Holmes proposed that the Section 37 guidelines kick in for developments of more than 5,000 square metres, rather than the recommended 7,000 square metres. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>“Because this is our first go at it, we are choosing a threshold like many other municipalities have chosen, that allows us to get at community benefits that are substantive enough and that go with substantial projects,” said Alain Miguelez, the city’s program manager for the development review process in urban areas. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The proposed guidelines are to go to council on March 28, and, if approved, the city expects to implement them on April 1. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.3in;line-height:19.2pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Linda O'Neil<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Public Education Consultant<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>301-1355 Bank St., Ottawa ON, K1H 8K7<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="mailto:loneil@cmhaottawa.ca" title="mailto:loneil@cmhaottawa.ca"><span style='color:blue'>loneil@cmhaottawa.ca</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tel: (613) 37-7791 Ext 135</span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>