Quote:
Originally Posted by shawkr
It's bullshit like this and this that make infill development so costly, not just in terms of legal expenditures and carrying costs but also the opportunity cost of the developer's time and effort. Notice that both linked projects are demolitions of SFHs. But one replaces it with a new SFH and the other with a 6-unit building. And that is fine! If someone has $2M to buy a SFH in the Glebe only to tear it down and put up a newer fancier one, then godspeed to that person. But I'm not going to complain about a mid-density development in a core neighbourhood either! If we make it easier for many types of infill to be built, then over time we will get a mix of typologies that matches market demands. |
Those two examples are of local residents concerned with new out-of-scale developments that will ruin the character of their area. That's always going to happen regardless of regulations. I've driven through these old neighborhoods, and I totally agree that this kind of development does not belong where proposed. 900 Albert I don't have an issue with; the intersection of two rapid transit lines is the best place for that kind of height, but the City should not have created a cdp with local residents they had no intention of upholding.
The issue in Ottawa isn't over-regulation. The problem is that the City approves just about anything, whether the project respects zoning/cdp or not. The only place where zoning is strict is within the CBD where we have height restrictions to protect Parliament sightlines.
Vancouver is another place where they seem to approve and build just about anything, and because of this everyone is priced out of the market.
The way to make a place affordable is to balance regulation in certain areas, and leave room for more flexibility in others. Encourage density near transit lines, protect low-density residential neighborhoods to leave room for young families with limited budgets.
Off topic again. Sorry. Do we have a thread for this? Could a moderator move this conversation to an appropriate thread or create one to move the conversation?
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