{"id":23601,"date":"2019-04-18T12:55:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23601"},"modified":"2019-04-18T12:55:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:55:24","slug":"getting-things-done-a-rebuttal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/getting-things-done-a-rebuttal\/","title":{"rendered":"GETTING THINGS DONE: A Rebuttal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mayor Tom Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read a recent op-ed piece in a national newspaper about the need for\nmore housing in Ontario and what\u2019s holding it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Included in the piece were the stated perspectives of a few\nrepresentatives of the building industry. Suffice to say I was disappointed in\nwhat I read; statements such as \u201cnothing can get built\u201d because \u201cdevelopments\nare held up in 10 years of red tape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thrust of the piece seemed to be saying, to me at least, that there\nis a housing \u201csupply\u201d issue in Ontario, the fault of which lay at the feet of\nMunicipal governments, and our misguided belief that we need to uphold our\nOfficial Plans. If only Municipal governments would just get on board, cut all\nthe \u201cred tape\u201d of  planning policies, rip\nup our various municipal zoning bylaws and replace it all with anything-goes\ndevelopment, then the housing \u201csupply\u201d problem would be solved.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I prefer to deal with facts, rather than self-serving half truths,\nlet\u2019s consider the statement that \u201cnothing can get built\u201d due to \u201c10 years of\nred tape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not true. By any measure. Any resident in York Region can tell you that\nthings are getting built.  In fact, I\nhave an inbox full of residents expressing concern about how much is getting\nbuilt and the increasing encroachment of development and corresponding loss of\ngreenspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But leaving that aside, as per the Region\u2019s own staff report, \u201c(York)\nRegion has an adequate supply of both registered and draft approved and designated\nunits to support anticipated demand.\u201d  In\nfact, right now the Region has a designated supply of over 180,000 units.  That supply, \u201c\u2026includes units within planning\napplications that are proposed as well as potential development and\nre-development of lands with a residential designation in local municipal plans\nbut which currently have no application.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No \u201cred tape\u201d needs to be cut. \nStart digging now.  Just follow\nthe Official Plan in the municipality you wish to build and you can build\ntomorrow.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the issue is truly one of a lack of supply, then why not build the\nthousands of units in the areas already zoned for housing, rather than fight to\nopen up land that isn\u2019t? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time and time again, Councils across the Province are asked to make\nexceptions \u2013 often substantial exceptions \u2013 to what is allowed under our\nOfficial Plans.  We see requests to amend\nthe zoning to allow 20 houses where currently one stands or a 20-storey\nbuilding where the zoning allows for seven storeys.  And on and on it goes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal Official Plans are collaboratively developed, provincially\napproved, municipal planning documents that set out what can be built and where\nin a given municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a plan that makes clear, that when you buy a piece of land, you\nknow what can be built on it.  And what\ncan\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, OPs are meant to be flexible. \nThey aren\u2019t carved in stone, but who gets to decide how much change in a\ncommunity is reasonable?  Whose vision of\na community takes precedence?  The\nMunicipal Council elected to serve the people who live there and work there, or\na for-profit driven industry whose primary consideration is their financial\nbottom line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planning goals of a profit-driven development industry are clearly\ndifferent than those of a community-focused Municipal Council.  One focuses on an individual corporate bottom\nline and the other the community building, socio-economic bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land-use planning decisions made within the context of the Provincially\ncompliant zoning bylaws of one\u2019s municipality are not obstructive or a\ncapitulation to \u201cNIMBYism\u201d but rather responsible leadership of the communities\nwe serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a housing supply issue? Absolutely.  But conflating increased availability with\naffordability doesn\u2019t address the central issue. We need more than just more\nhousing, we need more housing options. And in particular, purpose built rental\nhousing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communities grow and evolve.  But\nthe drivers of community change should be the community itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are to develop a shared bottom line of appropriate growth, we \u2013\nmunicipal leaders, residents, business owners and the development industry\nalike \u2013 need to work together to identify and deliver the housing needs unique\nto our communities so that we build a positive future and a vibrant community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s all for this\nweek. As always if you would like to get into contact with me please feel free\nto contact me anytime by phone 905-727-3123 ext. 4746 or by email\ntmrakas@aurora.ca and if you would like to sign up for more newsletters and\ncouncil updates then please visit Mrakas.ca\/contact to join the growing list of\nAurorans that are staying informed.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mayor Tom Mrakas I read a recent op-ed piece in a national newspaper about the need for more housing in Ontario and what\u2019s holding it back. Included in the piece were the stated perspectives of a few representatives of the building industry. Suffice to say I was disappointed in what I read; statements such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-68F","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 12:14:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}