Toronto Needs a “City Architect”
“The City Architect will report directly to the Mayor”
I would replace the Chief Planner with a “City Architect”. The City Architect would report to the Mayor. For far too long the process in our City has been run by planners and lawyers. It is time that my colleagues step up to the plate. In my opinion, and there may be some bias to this opinion, an Architect has a great understanding of the demands of urban planning, the planning process and implications to neighbourhoods and infrastructure, cost, and the implementation process. Yet, the Architect has an advantage in understanding how the planning practice affects buildings and interior spaces. This understanding is key to developing planning rational that will withstand the test of actual development.
Other cities I have visited with, most recently Copenhagen, has 200 hundred Architects as part of the City staff.
The Toronto Zoning By-Laws are at odds with the Provincial “Places to Grow” mandate. The By-Laws need to be updated and they need to anticipate growth rather than fight it.
Many towers are springing up in different parts of Toronto where height limits are at times a fraction of what is eventually permitted. The problem is that many neighborhoods and its inhabitants refer to the Official Plan and the existing Zoning By-laws to understand what may happen to their individual neighborhoods.
In my practice, I have seen many examples of residents wondering why a 140 metre high building is being allowed in an 18 metre height limited area. The problem is not the 140 metre tower, the problem is that the zoning by-laws did not prepare the residents for what may soon come to a lot near them.
The City of Toronto needs to take a leadership role in this regard and look realistically at what some neighbourhoods may expect to develop into. Far too often the Planning Department rejects applications which are then fought over at the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board), at great expense to the public. The Planning Department is all too happy to be on the record as having opposed an application, but are also at risk of becoming “obsolete” by not spearheading a “real” alternative.
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