Richmond Hill's high-rise boom spurred by pro-development council, profitmaking developers: experts

Experts say 'greed' among driving forces behind towers rising across once sleepy suburb

Yorkregion.com
March 18, 2021
Sheila Wang

As Richmond Hill accelerates its transformation into what is billed as “a new kind of urban,” experts say “greed” is one of the driving forces that is driving the ongoing tall building boom across the once sleepy town.

Real estate development in the city has been on an upward trajectory over the past few years, showing no sign of abating even during a global pandemic.

Dozens of high-rise residential towers have been proposed on both sides of Yonge Street from Hwy. 7 all the way up to 16th Avenue, covering every major intersection, according to the city’s planning data.

The city’s appetite for high rise buildings was a result of a combination of the market’s profitability and the planning regulations of Ontario, experts say.

“Part of it is the greed of the developers as they want to make money or they go wherever they can make good money,” Ute Lehrer, professor at York University’s faculty of environmental studies, said.

The high-rise boom itself was nothing new, the professor said. Twenty years ago, downtown Toronto went through a similar trend, which drastically changed the skyline of Canada’s largest city.

“Once downtowns are saturated and once they’re extremely expensive, suddenly Richmond Hill as well as Markham become attractive,” Lorenzo De Vidovich, who was a visiting researcher at York University, with a PhD in urban planning, design and policies.

Impelled by the province’s growth plan and intensification targets, Richmond Hill, along with a number of suburban communities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area, has started to re-envision their own future.

Richmond Hill, with a population of 208,000 in 2017, is expected to accommodate more than 242,000 people in 2031, according to the city’s estimates.

While building higher residential towers on the limited developable lands have been touted as the only answer to meet the need of the anticipated growth, more and more residents have raised questions such as, “How tall is too tall?”
On Feb. 25 alone, the city issued four notices on development applications, including one proposal for apartment buildings of 42 and 45 storeys in the Yonge and 16th Avenue key development area.

The proposed towers in such heights would shock the entire community three years ago, but probably not so much now.

In De Vidovich’s analysis about the rapid rise of Toronto’s northern suburbs in 2018, Vaughan and Markham -- the two largest municipalities in York Region -- were featured for their urban expansion.

Richmond Hill was left out of his commentary because it was considered a somewhat suburban community at that time.

It’s a different story now.

With the update of its official plan underway, the city is inviting residents and businesses to re-imagine the city’s future while processing numerous development applications that aspire to go higher and denser than what was permitted.

The political support behind the boom was another evident factor, David Crowley, a retired senior transportation planner, said.

“We have a very pro-development council and when I look at where their money came from the last election, I can understand why they’re so pro-development,” Crowley said.

Crowley who lives in Richmond Hill worked for the city as well as York Region as a consultant in transit planning and policy studies in the 2000s.

A great deal of money from the development industry found its way into the Richmond Hill election campaigns in 2018, The Liberal reported.

Big names in the development industry can be seen on several councillors’ campaign finances, from the prominent DeGasperis family of buildings and developers, the Ghadakis of Times Group Corporation, to Dino Taurasi of Stateview Construction.

The Liberal asked all council members how much money they received from individuals from the development industry -- Carmine Perrelli, Greg Beros, Joe DiPaola and Tom Muench did not disclose.

These councillors have often voted in favour of contentious developments, records show.

Last May, they gave a thumbs up to the intensification plan for the future of the Yonge and Bernard Avenue key development area, which has increased density, reduced parkland and removed the cap on building heights.

The same month, council asked the province for a special zoning order from the province to open up protected lands between Hwy. 404 and Leslie Street for industrial use, which has been rejected.

Six months later, council moved to back the developers asking for another special order to expedite a development proposal in the area of Major MacKenzie Drive and Hwy. 404. It has been approved.

This map below shows what the high-rise boom looks like so far along Yonge Street. At least 33 high-rise developments are currently being proposed through the city, mostly at major intersections.

High-rise developments don’t have to be bad news, De Vidovich said.

It could improve vibrancy, livability and public space usability through commercial activities such as pubs, shops and restaurants, he said.

But they need to be reconciled with the existing social fabric and carried out with fulsome public engagement, he noted.

Lehrer agreed that there would benefits coming with residential towers, but cautioned that there needed to be good planning.

“We have to watch out for the developers that are always asking for more than what they would get,” Lehrer said.

Resident John Li knew all too well the grapple with the developers as he led a local fight against overdevelopment for years.

At one point, they did manage to pressure council to reverse a development proposal at Yonge and Bernard from 37 storeys back to 15 storeys. The developers have taken the plan to the LPAT.

“In pursuit of profit, high-rise developers put almost all reasonable development regulations aside. They repeatedly went to LPAT to appeal reasonable official plan and zoning bylaws,” Li said.

A record-breaking 54-storey skyscraper that was proposed to replace the Emerald Isle Motel has been brought to LPAT. It is one of 27 open Richmond Hill-related cases that are under appeal, as of March 8.

There are 147 cases that have been recently closed, according to the tribunal’s website.

“My main concern is that they’re going to dramatically overload the local arterial roads and the assumptions that the traffic planners are making about dramatic changes in travel behaviours are not going to occur,” Crowley said.

“This is why planning is so important. Good planning is about thinking ahead and thinking about where we want growth and what we want to put in place first, so this growth is supported.”

However, she said the infrastructures such as public schools, hospitals and transportation were often an afterthought.