Quote:
Developers slam urban boundary plan
1,200-acre expansion over 20 years not enough, will drive up house costs, homebuilders say
Mohammed AdamOttawa Citizen
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
OTTAWA -- The City of Ottawa is looking to expand its urban boundary by 1,200 acres - about the size of Leitrim in the rural south - over the next 20 years, but developers say homebuyers will pay dearly for keeping the expansion that small.
The boundary, a line around the outside edge of the city beyond which development is not meant to sprawl, is a key way to force developers to construct more buildings in existing neighbourhoods.
John Moser, the city's director of planning, told the Citizen editorial board
Wednesday that while intensification is here to stay, in the next version of its official plan for development, the city plans to expand the boundary to meet long-term housing needs. He said the expansion will not eat up agricultural land or encroach on new communities, but will be limited to areas where opportunities exist to take advantage of services or finish existing development.
"We are talking about the frame of this official plan, which is up to 2031, so there's probably a need for some expansion. We are looking at this on a very limited basis," Mr. Moser said. "The city will continue to grow, certainly, and we are looking at 500 hectares - 1,235 acres."
But John Herbert, executive director of the Ottawa Homebuilders Association, said the city's proposal is not nearly enough, and having a "bunch of naive bureaucrats" decide where houses should be built is a huge mistake that will cost new homebuyers money.
"We are asking for 10,000 acres because the city doesn't have nearly enough land in the urban boundary. What they are proposing is a huge mistake and it is going to drive housing prices higher," Mr. Herbert said. "It is government interference in the private market and they are creating a huge problem for new homebuyers."
For years, the extension of the urban boundary has been a source of great controversy, leading to battles at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). At the heart of the issue is whether the city has enough urban land inside the Greenbelt to satisfy demand for new homes. While the city usually maintains it has more than enough, developers disagree. The latest controversy comes as the city reviews the 2003 official plan, revising it to look ahead as far as 2031.
According to the latest land survey, the city had 6,800 net acres of vacant urban residential land at the end of 2006 - spread across the city, but most of it in the suburbs. The land is enough to last 23 years at projected 2007 consumption levels and well above the 10-year supply required by the provincial government, the city says.
The survey also showed that based on average demand over the last five years, the supply of land already serviced with trunk sewers and watermains is enough to last 12 years. However, based on projected consumption, the supply will last 15 years.
The survey said that in 2006, about 330 acres of vacant urban land were developed, up from 289 acres the year before. But the consumption rate was below 370 acres, the average of the previous five years.
The land survey also found that 10 major landowners, among them Richcraft, Urbandale, Brookfield, KNL Developments and Minto, owned 54 per cent of the vacant urban land in 2006. Richcraft and Urbandale together own a little more than 30 per cent of the land.
The homebuilders' association disputes the city's projections, saying Ottawa actually has enough land for about eight years' worth of new construction. Mr. Herbert says the city's argument is undermined by the fact that in the last five years, several small- and medium-size builders have left the city for lack of urban land. Big builders that used to sell some of the land to smaller operators are now holding onto it because of the shortage, he says.
The OMB, a provincial agency, can overrule city planning decisions, and in the past, developers often won appeals on urban expansion.
Under recent legislation that gives city governments more control over urban growth, the OMB cannot overturn an urban boundary drawn up by a council, says Mr. Moser.
Mr. Herbert says by restricting the supply of urban land, the city is creating an artificial shortage that increases the price of serviced land. He acknowledges that once the city sets the boundary, there is very little homebuilders can do except pass on costs to buyers.
"To see a bunch of naive bureaucrats artificially driving up the price of land needlessly is extremely frustrating," he said.
Supply of vacant land, by district, as of 2006
Kanata-Stittsville 34%
Riverside South 21%
South Nepean 19%
Orléans 18%
Leitrim 5%
Inside the Greenbelt 3%
© Ottawa Citizen 2008
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'naive bureaucrat's? maybe the homebuilders should just adapt to the new paradigms in planning... look at all the suburban developers in Toronto that have started building condos since Places to Grow
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