I was briefly in Hamilton, Ontario last week and the
spillover from the GTA is starting to have an impact on Hamilton’s skyline
downtown as new residential construction begins with many more proposed. Along with some picturesque and redeveloped older buildings that retain their charm, there are entirely new projects on old sites such as the old Kresge building site downtown.
Some of them are indeed quite large with
proposals for building ranging from a few to as many as 45 stories. Many have attracted the rancor of residents
in downtown residential neighborhoods as some of the proposed buildings are so
large and dense, they effectively will more than double the population of some
downtown neighborhoods and cast large dark shadows across leafy neighborhoods.
What is more interesting is that given the shortage of
housing and the need for urban infill combined with the desire of many not to
see valuable farmland filled up with subdivisions, the opposition is actually not anti-development
or anti infill. There is an acceptance
that taller or more dense buildings with family sized housing units need to be built. What is causing concern is that the proposed
units violate height restrictions already in place – the scale and intensity of
the development – as well as create units that really in the end are not family
sized units but tiny condos destined for investors - domestic or otherwise.
Now there is a lot going on here and the issue is quite
complicated but here is what seems to be going on with respect to several
projects at the corner of Queen Street and King being both built and
proposed by a company known as Vrancor
which along with being a hospitality company is also property management and
development company. First there a residence and hotel at the corner of Queen
and King currently under construction which appears to have stalled because
Vrancor now wants one of the buildings to exceed the height it had originally
proposed. The original
proposal was for a 10-storey hotel and six storey apartment building.
However, Vrancor has modified that to 12 storey hotel and now wants the six-storey
apartment to increase in height from six to 25 storeys. The City of Hamilton
has apparently approved the increase for the hotel but the other one is now at the
Ontario
Land Tribunal (OLT) and construction has been stalled since and now stands at a 12 storey hotel and a flat base with a construction crane.
But then, as much as there is a building boom
in Hamilton there are also some curiously stalled projects and empty lots with pictures of buildings that will probably never exist.
What is even more interesting is the proposal for the parcel
of land immediately north of the Vrancor development under construction which is
currently a parking lot. Here the proposal
for Vrancor Towers II is for four towers – two of 15 storeys and two of 27
storeys for a total of 762 dwelling units along with 1003 metres of commercial
space and 369 parking spaces on top of a three to seven storey base. Needless to say, this development will dwarf
the adjacent residential area of single homes in the Strathcona neighborhood,
effectively double its population, add to the infrastructure needs of sewer and
water, cast large shadows, and generally create a spate of negative externalities.
So the full scale of the development of
four mega towers has attracted
protest and debate. The City of Hamilton is apparently instructing its
legal counsel to oppose these proposed developments at least at the scale they
are intended because they do not comply with their own guidelines regarding transition,
height, scale, massing, shadow, and density.
This will inevitably also end up at the OLT.
Given the sudden rush to add to housing stock, these types
of situations will become more common across the country. The need to intensify urban development to
accommodate a larger population and preserve green space makes a lot of sense but the scale of what is being
proposed seems to be a lot all at once that will overwhelm rather than
complement existing uses. Even
politicians who are trying to rapidly “solve” the housing crisis after years of
neglect must admit that development needs to increase density and be forward
looking but it also needs to recognize the needs of existing residents who have
already made investments in the area based on expectations of a certain style
and quality of life. And the residents
of the area themselves are not opposed to apartment units but probably wonder
why something more European
in scope rather than modeled on 1950s
Toronto might not be a better fit.
In the end, these buildings are not really family sized
units but merely stacked little boxes for investors to buy and sell irregardless. The only good thing is that for the next two
years, foreign buyers are facing more restrictions and interest rates are going
up. Never mind pinning your hopes on the
OLT to stop the project. Higher interest
rates alone may put an end to some of the more oversized development proposals
that have been popping up in Hamilton.
