During the past century, short-term thinking has increasingly taken hold of the decision-making process of our city’s government. This is especially evident in Toronto’s planning departments, where officials are choosing short-term solutions over long-term, sustainable, reasonable and responsible choices.
I was the first candidate to make the case for long-term vision when it came to Transit City, the city’s short-term proposal for a network of surface trains on our already congested streets.
Toronto’s short-term thinking is not limited to Transit. It has seeped its way into our design and construction processes, resulting in unappealing and unimaginative blocks of concrete or glass where beautiful buildings should stand.
Toronto must break away from being a city that chooses second-rate, short-term, options and become a city that invests in more innovative long-term solutions that will elevate our city onto the world stage.
We must implement long-term planning to protect our vast public spaces and parklands, to expand our subway system, and to attract new businesses and job opportunities to our city.
Design for Excellence Program
Toronto is a culturally diverse city and our architecture could tell a much bigger story of the diversity that is Toronto.My administration will unlock the potential for design and construction creativity right here in Toronto and encourage fresh thinking and new ideas for long-term building practices by initiating the Design for Excellence Program. It will encourage developers to bring new international ideas to their designs, like adding various cultural features and styles—Chinese, Romanesque, Persian—to the designs they create and, because of this, our buildings will reflect the story and beauty of cultural diversity that so wonderfully defines Toronto.
The Design for Excellence Program will encourage developers to create buildings that will last for centuries and include higher targets for achieving beautiful design. While beauty is subjective, we can set standards that most agree work to enhance our buildings.
A working group of architects and designers will be formed to set out the practical targets required for a building to qualify for the Design for Excellence Program status. The working group will assess all projects and next-step status will be given to those who meet the targets.
The first step in unlocking excellence and building inspiring architecture will be to hold open meetings with local citizens, residents, businesses, and other stakeholders to ensure neighbourhood participation in all major development projects. It is important that those around major projects understand their goals, their plans, and their impact on day-to-day life.
Major projects in our city will be able to move forward seamlessly as the steps involved in the Design for Excellence Program as well as review, and open public consultation will be taken with application filing. My administration will move to ensure that post-filing changes to applications, if brought about through public consultation and compromise, are approved with minimal hassle, delay, and cost.
Unlocking Long-Term Planning and Growth
Toronto needs to revamp its approach to building and development. The current delays in the building application process are too long and the existing zoning along transit corridors does not support the density increases suggested in our official plan. My administration will streamline the application process and reduce the risk to developers wanting to build along our transit corridors.
Reducing Section 37 Fees: Developers and the city are constantly clashing over the Section 37 fee usually imposed when developers want to increase their densities. Developers inevitably fight the charge (up to 30%) through the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) where it usually gets reduced to as low as 15%. This is time-consuming and costly for both developers and the city. My administration will work with the OMB to determine the reasonable rate and then set that rate with a 3-year review period.
Developer Concierge Service: I propose creating a “concierge” service for developers that will take their plans efficiently through the planning process. This special service will place a city hall customer service representative on each file with the duty of taking the plans quickly through every department that must approve them.
Pre-Zoning Transit Corridors: My administration will pre-zone and improve density opportunities along our transit corridors, thus reducing the risk to developers. This pre-zoning will set the stage for changing the structure of public consultation that is currently in place.
Unlocking True Collaboration
Putting Public Consultation First: True collaboration will require real change to the status quo at city hall. My administration will make sure that the citizens of Toronto, the community organizations and the business associations are consulted at the beginning of the planning process on developments in their neighbourhoods.
I will make sure that the city and all its boards, commissions, and agencies properly engage the community at the beginning of the planning process. Instead of telling people what is going to happen in their neighbourhoods, the city will first ask the community what they want to happen. This will require a change to the status quo, but this shift will impact every aspect of our municipal government.
My administration will eliminate the sense of entitlement and authority that has seeped into our bureaucracy by changing the process they use to guide them through their projects. The first step in all initiatives will be public consultation to find out what the people want. The wishes of our citizens must always be considered before any serious planning is undertaken.
For example when the TTC went through the planning process to add emergency exits to Greenwood Subway station, they took 8 years to come up with a plan that failed with local residents. The community collaborated and in only two weeks created a plan that was endorsed by the TTC. Full collaboration could save the city time and millions of dollars spent on studies and consultants.
My administration will make collaboration between the city, the community and business organizations a required step in the planning process.
Working together we can find the best solutions to the challenges ahead.
Heritage Protection
My administration will limit the destruction of our heritage buildings, especially those built before 1920. Toronto has become a city of new and often insubstantial buildings; we must reverse this trend by saving our older buildings that present some of the finest classic architecture and resolute building quality in Toronto’s history.
Unless an asset is beyond salvaging, my administration will require all government-owned buildings built prior to 1920 be saved and restored (using local materials and talent) rather than torn down and replaced.
Buy Local and Employ Local Talent
Toronto must grow on the international scene – through development, transit, diversity, and a host of other areas. But that doesn’t mean we have to outsource all of our work.
My administration will encourage long-term vision and responsible judgment. We will recognize the incredible talent we have right here in Toronto instead of constantly trying to showcase talent from other cities.
We must invest in our local economy to fuel job creation and growth during the decades ahead. My administration will require that any city-funded projects and buildings give priority to local talent and materials wherever possible.
Unlocking Beauty for Everyone
My administration will create a city of beautiful boulevards, streetscapes, public spaces, green space and architecture.
I believe in the “Broken Window” theory of neighbourhood degeneration. If we continue to allow our buildings to decay and the city’s darker elements to deface our parks, our transit, and our neighbourhoods, we will become increasingly desensitized to the change in our social norms.
I want to challenge our degeneration head-on by beautifying all of Toronto’s neighbourhoods. Such initiatives start with the City’s commitment to doing things right the first time. We must take away the “outback” description that many give to Toronto and put the overhead wires that line our residential streets underground concurrent with street construction.
My administration will ensure that we properly plant larger, more substantial trees that will grow up along our boulevards rather than the small, spindly trees that get replaced every year or two because they have not been properly planted.
When long-term thinking is applied, beautiful architecture and savings go hand in hand, neighbourhoods improve, and Toronto will find its strength to lead again.
My administration will encourage long-term vision, a beautiful city, a collaborative neighbourhood planning process and responsible judgment in all decisions.
