Planning for changes as city grows
A guest column from Reimagine Peterborough
Development in Peterborough is changing. Look around you – Atria’s apartments in the old YMCA, church renovations, and land use plans spurred by developer interest in intensifying Crescent Street. New greenfield subdivisions that will increase the number of city dwellings by 10 per cent (and more) are now underway on Lily Lake Road and elsewhere. Two new drivethroughs coming to Chemong and Parkhill. Development in Peterborough will soon change a great deal more. The province’s Growth Plan and the city’s coming new Official Plan will shape and shift how and where we plan our new and old neighbourhoods over the next decades to accommodate 9,000 new housing units. To guide this major change, council has approved welcome new funds to support staff, an advisory group, new natural area studies and mapping, and growing public engagement. Recently, the city's public survey on “growth” heard from more than 1,300 people. An overwhelming 90 per cent of respondents supported more mixed-use and low/mid-rise buildings, moderate support for more townhouses and high-rises, and only one quarter preferring more singles and semi-detached housing. This aligns with the previous public input that shows a high proportion want complete neighbourhoods offering environmental stewardship, alternate transportation options, and walkability to services like school, groceries and medical facilities. What’s more, public comments indicated financial responsibility is linked to compact growth. Somewhat surprisingly, the city plans to spend $20,000 on phone surveys to supplement these results with random samples. However, it is unclear if a random sample is achievable with increasingly fewer homes connected to landlines. City staff also have been modelling future land uses and transportation patterns for four different growth scenarios. More surveys and a design workshop are planned for the spring, with the draft Official Plan now expected in early 2019. In addition to collecting public input on growth, the city must follow provincial directions. Updated provincial planning requirements are designed to save our cities’ costs and taxes, make transit more viable and frequent, and foster healthier people and communities. This will help reduce climate change impacts and protect more natural areas and farmland. These are goals we can all get behind! A key tool to achieve these goals is “intensification” – increasingly growing up rather than out, building more in the core, and using land more efficiently. This is not a “build anything anywhere” approach, but rather one that requires much thought, discussion, plus creativity and strong leadership from the private sector. Having sensitive design, good public spaces, protected natural and cultural heritage, and better-integrated communities can make this work well. Specifically, the province’s Growth Plan intensification targets direct that half of all residential development each year must be in the existing built area, or within the city’s current footprint. This target increases to 60 per cent by 2031. As well, undeveloped greenfield lands must have an increased density of 80 residents and jobs per hectare. This means building subdivisions with more housing types like townhomes and low-rise apartments, and with services and businesses integrated. This allows people to live in complete neighbourhoods where they are not so dependent on vehicles for meeting their basic needs, such as food shopping. Setting these intensification and density targets is pivotal to planning future residential growth patterns in the city. Rather than the provincial targets, the city has indicated it will seek provincial approval to use lower density targets here: down to 55 per cent of new housing in the built area, and down to 55 residents and jobs per hectare (instead of 80) in the undeveloped greenfields. The city explains that developers may find it hard to profitably achieve the province’s targets, and new subdivision densities will need to counterbalance those recently-approved by the city at lower densities. Additionally, staff have indicated that meeting provincial targets will likely mean Peterborough has an excess of greenfield lands needed for development. As a result, these excess greenfields may be redirected away from residential development. In Peterborough, we still have many opportunities for development and redevelopment in the built area and at a variety of densities. Younger and aging populations are looking for alternatives closer to downtown and to maintain a livable city. Look around your neighbourhood and list the under-used lots and sites with potential, and share your ideas with the city and Reimagine. How do these targets compare to today’s patterns? Recently approved Lily Lake subdivision plans have mostly single homes (50 to 65 per cent) at a density of 50 residents and jobs per hectare. The new seniors housing at the former Fleming College Bonaccord campus will be at least 80, and the Citi Centre block at Aylmer and Charlotte is 650 residents and jobs per hectare. Reimagine Peterborough supports practical, thoughtful intensification. Discussions about how best to shape the city’s future through the new Official Plan can be a healthy part of our democracy. We encourage vigorous and open engagement, with robust and transparent data, discussion, and forward-looking planning for the major changes coming to our city. Reimagine encourages you to sign up on the city’s website for notification of future opportunities to participate in the Official Plan Review at: www.peterborough.ca/ Business/Studies___ Projects/Official_Plan_ Update/Scheduled_Events.htm
Ian Attridge is an environmental lawyer, member of the Official Plan Working Group and a co-ordinator of Reimagine Peterborough. This is the 13th in a series of columns from Reimagine Peterborough, a citizen-led movement that sees better urban planning and public engagement as essential to our social, cultural, environmental, democratic and quality of life needs. For updates and a Toolkit to help groups contribute to the Official Plan, follow Reimagine Peterborough on Facebook, Twitter, at reimagineptbo.ca, and join our mailing list.