New Social Media Campaign by GOHBA
 

The City of Ottawa is made up of communities. From Riverside South to Westboro, Orleans to Kanata, each and every community has its own unique personality. What is not unique is that each and every one of these communities was built by homebuilders.

Residential construction is the engine that drives Ottawa’s economy. We are the second largest employer in the Nation’s Capital, next to the Federal Government. In 2010, the value of new housing, residential renovation and other expenditures in Ottawa totaled $3.1 billion. The industry employs over 35,000 people in everything from framing to drywall, to architects, planners, clerical staff and sales and marketing. Every year the total wages paid by the industry are $1.5 billion. Our members also work with hundreds of apprentices, co-op students and other young people teaching them trades and sharing our expertise.

But notably, homebuilders have a commitment to more than just building homes. We build parkland, engage in sustainable development and invest in local charitable initiatives. GOHBA members donate tens of millions of dollars to charities, not-for-profits and other community organizations in Ottawa. For example, our $8 million commitment to the new Algonquin Trades building ensured that it was a success.

But increased opposition and regulation at City Hall is threatening our livelihood and future. We want to continue to invest in Ottawa and want to continue to build communities. However, the current environment is pushing our projects, and jobs, away.

This negativity will cost Ottawa jobs, investment, and progress. We need you to help us share with Ottawa City Council how important the industry is to you. Stand up for Building Ottawa.

Who we are
The Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA) represents the home building and renovation professionals in the Greater Ottawa, Ontario region. Builders, renovators, designers, trade contractors, suppliers and financial institutions are the core of the association’s membership.

The Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association is built on vision and commitment – a vision of a strong and positive role for the housing industry, and a commitment to support the professionalism of our members and provide affordability, quality and choice for consumers.



http://www.buildingottawa.ca/

If they would stop building ugly, insipid, uninspired, 1950s-style sprawl, I'd be inclined to support them.

But they won't. So I won't.

Regulation? Yes.
Opposition? At City Hall? When?

Go on, GOHBA, find me the anti-development planner!

To be clear, I'm pro-development, and agree with how the city is putting better more stringent regulations. I find GOHBA to be so very off message from their members and the aspirations of this city that it's pretty hard to take them seriously.

They sounds like Phoenix, AZ or something...not Ottawa.

I wouldn't say there are many 'anti-development' planners at City Hall but there are many who have been ensconsed in that bubble at 110 Laurier who have little appreciation for what costs and timeframes are required to squeeze a development project through and that last minute requests for changes can have cascading impacts on a project design and proforma.

There are very few planners at the City who have worked in private development.

Having said all that, very few GOHBA members have an appreciation or respect for what City Planners have to put up with from the infrastructure group who want to protect Rights of Ways at all costs, city planning by Hydro Ottawa, community associations and City Councillors trying to be planners.

And here we have in two sentences what is pretty much wrong with Ottawa's economy, along with some appallingly misinformed economics.

Residential construction can't "drive" an economy. Residential construction is "driven" by growth, be it economic or population (usually both). Here in Ottawa, what drives most growth is the the growth of the Federal Government.

There's a sort of delicious irony from the GOHBA's description of the economy given what they go on to complain about in the rest of their message: the residential construction sector in Ottawa's economy exists primarily because of the growth of federal bureaucracy all the while they are complaining about the growth of municipal bureaucracy. They don't seem to mind sharing in the direct benefits to Ottawa of more federal bureaucracy (which no doubt impinges upon multitudes of sectors and industries across the country) but heaven forbid the City bureaucracy impinge upon them.

Really? I seriously doubt that is the case anymore.

The City does not hire planners straight out of university. You have to have a few years' experience in planning before they'll even consider you. A few people might be able to collect that experience in co-ops or stints in rural municipalities, but by and large the only way to gain the experience the City demands is to be hired first in the private sector. Otherwise, I sure would like to know where the planners the City has hired over the years got the experience that the City demands they have.

Frankly, I'd make the opposite argument: the reason City planners appear to be so sympathetic towards developers and antipathetic towards communities is because most of them have been in the private sector and could well see themselves returning there at some point.

That said, I could well see that some long time planners have been at the City for a very long time ("ensconsed in that bubble at 110 Laurier") and have no recent experience in development and they may well have been first hired at a time when moving from university to city employment was possible or even the norm. I just doubt that's the case for anyone hired in the last decade.

And that's before trying to ensure that development pays for itself, which is also a concept apparently foreign to the GOHBA.

These same builders have been building a lot of condos though...

A few other places for planners to get that kind of experience out of school are at CAs, the Province, and other municipalities, but not necessarily in the Ottawa area -> several of my classmates went to Alberta municipalities for their first planning jobs, I know other people went to New Brunswick. Having a masters also knocks a couple of years off of the City's requirements.

In a nutshell what are the City's requirements. Recently, I have dealt with planners at the City who seem fresh out of school or a work term or two. They are competent, enthusiastic people and very tech savvy but not brimming with experience..and most of it is municipal.

Driving around the City it seems as though the Development Application signs contain new names of planners.

Actually no. Most builders specialize in singles, towns or apartments. Even fewer do mixed use. More are dabbling in different product than before but not as much as you might think.

From what I have heard and when I see them in action GOHBA primarily represents or is the voice of builders of singles. And they don't like Mattamy. Not sure many do though.

they've actually been pretty active posting blog posts and on social media
http://www.buildingottawa.ca/blog