Peel development challenges

NRU
June 27, 2018
Rachael Williams

With municipal elections quickly approaching, the development industry is proactively engaging with municipal governments to determine how to address policies and practices that members say have stifled the supply of housing in the GTA.

In a series of pre-election events hosted by the Building Industry and Land Development Association, mayoral candidates across the region are being asked to participate in a panel discussion to reflect on the previous term of council and their visions for future growth. This “Election Talk Series” kicked off in Peel Region this week, with mayors from Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon discussing development challenges within their respective communities.

“I think we need to look at different ways of building infrastructure because certainly, growth has to pay for growth,” said Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie. “But we can’t just build infrastructure and hope that development occurs. They almost have to occur hand-in-hand.”

Mississauga’s waterfront redevelopment is a perfect example of infrastructure not keeping pace with the population growth anticipated for the area. The province sold the 177-acre Ontario Power Generation lands to a developer consortium nearly a decade before the city anticipated a land deal would be reached. Adjacent to the OPG lands is the former Imperial Oil lands, a 72-acre parcel that is also being developed earlier than expected by the West Village Partners.

“We don’t have the transit or transportation in our capital budget for the next 10 years, so we’re putting 56,000 people in Lakeview in south Mississauga without a road network or public transit network that can accommodate them,” she said.

Crombie is encouraging greater collaboration between all levels of government and the development industry to make sure the necessary infrastructure is in place to support the Growth Plan’s population projections.

“We recognize that growth needs to pay for growth and there is an appropriate role for development charges,” said BILD president and CEO David Wilkes. “What we see is, and have some challenges around, is that development charges are being viewed as a source of revenue as opposed to a source of paying for growth.”

Since 2004, development charges have increased between 236 per cent and 878 per cent across the region, according to BILD. This is in addition to the cost and time delays associated with the various studies, reports, checklists and plans that developers have to submit as part of an application.
“Even the simple ones are taking four or five years to get approval,” said BILD Peel chapter chair Jason Bottini. “And the more challenging ones are taking 10, 10-plus [years].”

BILD has put forward a number of proposals to speed up the process, including encouraging municipal governments to pre-designate and pre-zone land for development, update zoning by-laws, reduce the number of studies and reports required for each application and expedite building permits and inspections.
BILD is also pushing the province to accelerate outstanding environmental assessments related to major infrastructure projects in Peel Region.

“There is some really critical infrastructure that could really change the face of Peel Region in the next 20 years,” said Bottini.

Referencing the GTA West highway, which would run through northwest Brampton and through southern Caledon, Bottini said the cancellation of the environmental assessment by the former provincial government put a halt on the delivery of much-needed employment lands and has left other “valuable planning land” frozen until the future of the corridor is determined.

“I’m very disappointed that the EA was cancelled,” said Caledon mayor Allan Thompson. “For us to take the growth that [the province] is asking us to take though York and Peel, it’s a sure, sure miss.”

Peel is expected to grow by 500,000 residents and with much of Mississauga and Brampton built out, Caledon is the only municipality in the region poised for significant growth.

Premier-elect Doug Ford has committed to restart the environmental process on the GTA West Corridor in an effort to reduce congestion throughout the region.
But Brampton mayor Linda Jeffrey is less optimistic about the incoming government’s planning commitments in Peel, warning members of the development community about the inexperience of the newly-elected MPPs.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable ...I think you’re on a completely different landscape, you have a completely different group of people who have the wheel and the keys to the car, and they do planning differently again so I think you need to fasten your seatbelts.”