Getting the lay of the land

I’ve received some great feedback from those of you who are reading this column and learning about how our industry mobilizes when a transit plan is given a green light.

This is my third installment, and so far I’ve introduced the complex process of bringing a development project from dirt to door once a major investment in transit is announced by a local or provincial government.

In my last column, I wrote about the vast research that occurs before buying property near a proposed transit line, including everything from studying relevant legislation to getting down on the ground and conducting market research in the neighbourhood.

In this column, I’m going to get the lay of the land once an investment has been made and look at what happens next.

Let’s say the proposed transit line is coming to your neighbourhood. It’s an exciting time and the existing neighbourhood will benefit. From our perspective, there is an opportunity for growth because people want to live close to a transit line and we need people to actually use it. From a municipal finance perspective, there is also an opportunity to grow the tax base that will support the new infrastructure now and in the future.

So, you may be wondering, what makes a certain property more attractive to our industry than others? A lot of study goes into buying a piece of property even before the land is acquired and the studies do continue right through the planning process.

Let’s go back to the example in your neighbourhood. Along that transit corridor, it might appear that vacant or underutilized land is available, but it’s important to know how the city or town has zoned that particular property. That zoning will determine what land uses, such as residential or commercial, are allowed there, where buildings and other structures can be located, and what requirements need to be met when building there. Zoning bylaws contain specific requirements and one example is building height, which is why you’ve likely heard the term “density” used as a synonym for building height. It’s not that simple.

What makes a certain property more attractive to our industry than others?

The province set density targets for certain areas in every municipality, which are called “Greenfield sites” or “Urban Growth Centres.” Municipalities have adopted those policies to guide where and how the city or town will grow. In some cases, municipal zoning bylaws are not up-to-date with 21st century planning principles and transit plans, so zoning along the proposed transit corridor could date back to when the area was home to estate lots, or even farmland. With a proposal to build a transitoriented community on property that has out-dated zoning, the project plans are bound to be different from what the bylaw allows, which means applying for amendments or rezoning. That could add time and cost to the project’s lifecycle. There are also planning fees, and the application to amend the legislation has to go to the local council for approval. If it’s denied, the project might go to the Ontario Municipal Board, which is an independent administrative tribunal responsible for hearing appeals. The board also decides on a variety of contentious municipal matters — but that’s a whole other column. In my next column, I’ll go into more detail about the planning application process because that’s when a development project really starts to take shape. Paul Golini is the chairman of the Building Industry and Land Development