Brampton open data: Debunking land supply arguments

NRU
Oct. 26, 2016
By Andrew Cohrs

Tackling the development industry’s argument that a shortage of serviced land is causing housing prices to increase and hampered by a lack of data across the region, Neptis Foundation researchers analyzed City of Brampton data sets. They found plenty of serviced land ready for development.

Released last Friday, the Neptis research bulletin suggests the argument is false, but data from other municipalities is needed. Brampton is only municipality in the GTA that has complete data sets on serviced lands garnered through plans of subdivision.

“Is serviced land, or rather the lack of serviced land really the reason housing prices are going up? I think this analysis shows that [Brampton] has almost a five-year supply of serviced land,” Neptis executive director Marcy Burchfield told NRU.

Seeking to inform the debate, Neptis is examining land supply issues in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Burchfield said that the first research bulletin showed that only 20 per cent of designated greenfield lands had been developed. Now, as arguments shift from the shortage of land to a shortage of serviced land, Neptis analyzed the availability of serviced land in Brampton, finding that the municipality has nearly 1,200 ha of serviced land that has not yet been developed.

The research involved mapping registered, approved and draft - approved plans of subdivision to represent available serviced land because the plans all require water and wastewater servicing prior
to being approved or registered. The data was then compared with the Neptis database on designated greenfield areas, allowing the researchers to highlight lands where subdivisions had been draft- approved, approved or registered, but had not been built on.

“Brampton represents about 25 per cent of [development] on greenfield lands in the GTA,” said Burchfield. “[It is] a big player when it comes to greenfield development so if it’s not an issue here, the question is: Is it an issue where there is less demand?”

Burchfield is quick to point out that the city’s cooperation was essential to the analysis.

“I think it shows that municipalities can be real leaders in putting out information that they have to help inform the larger debate.”

But Brampton business systems and IT manager Kirby Childerhose cautions that more data are necessary; however, the city has yet to publically release data sets that would improve the analysis.

“The information [Neptis] has now is a great starting point but when we go through an exercise like this there is a lot of other pieces of information that are required in order to make the kinds of interpretations they are making.”

While Burchfield agrees that more data are needed to have a complete understanding of the region, she thinks that this analysis can be used in Brampton to inform council, the public and residential developers. It will enable a conversation based on facts.

“The information is so scattered and not readily publicly accessible to understand the bigger picture... It would be fantastic if other municipalities put this information out there to really get a sense of whether there is an issue of serviced land in other places in the region.”

The provincial government has abdicated its role in understanding how its policies are working by not collecting this type of information, Burchfield says.