05-26-2020, 06:47 PM
(05-26-2020, 05:19 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I think this points to a bigger failure.
Why is the land in DTK so valuable, what is provided here that isn't provided in the rest of the city. This isn't a particularly large downtown, there isn't the same prestige for companies or people to locate here as say downtown Toronto.
So why is housing here so valuable, is it...perhaps...artificial scarcity, both of housing downtown (we have huge swaths of legislated single family housing), not to mention the legislated scarcity of walkable, transit friendly neighbourhoods in the rest of the city.
Yes, maybe we could make more affordable housing by buying suburban sprawl housing, but that's not necessarily a good (because the last thing recipients of affordable housing need to be forced to buy is a car), or equitable policy (why should only the wealthy get to enjoy a car free lifestyle).
Excellent question. I agree that the zoning rules, which forbid building anything like the best parts of the city, are a big problem. So step 1 is to dramatically loosen zoning: eliminate all parking minima, make setbacks something that can be waived by the adjacent property owner, dramatically reduce the number of residential zones (in particular, everything from single-family to townhouses and small apartments should be a single category), allow residential in all commercial zones, and probably other things I haven’t mentioned. Of course, a lot of planners would be out of a job, but as long as we get to pick which ones are out of a job, that should be a significant improvement.