“There are both theoretical and practical issues regarding employment lands,” said Mark Kindrachuk, president of Intermarket Developments Inc., as he addressed a packed room on April 16 at the Board of Trade, where a diverse range of perspectives including planner, developer, lawyer and both municipal and provincial government addressed the complex issue of unlocking employment lands for smart development.

Drawing on his more-than-considerable planning expertise, Ken Greenberg, previous chief planner for the City of Toronto and now principal of Greenberg Consultants Inc., explained how relaxed zoning bylaws allowed for adaptive reuse of old mercantile buildings in “the Kings” and Liberty Village neighbourhoods. Greenberg highlighted their success by noting that the first five years of the approved plan saw the creation of 6,000 new jobs and over $2 billion of investment. As these neighbourhoods continue to mature, Greenberg suggests that the market will naturally embrace plans to achieve higher value for the area, “through integrating mixed retail, employment opportunities and residential in a cohesive vision.” Greenberg concluded his presentation by advising that future policy should take cues from the success of Liberty Village and the Kings as examples, and support establishing new neighbourhoods that are about combined uses that are “synergistically connected and mutually supportive.”

Next Mike Williams, the City of Toronto’s General Manager of Economic Development and Culture, discussed the City’s vision for employment lands. It was evident from Williams’s presentation that the City has the challenge of operating from a much longer-term vision with an emphasis on creating and retaining jobs. In his discussion, Williams stated that “it is important to recognize that Downtown Toronto is not representative of the full Toronto spectrum,” going further to suggest that Toronto has a chronic unemployment challenge, particularly in the older suburbs. As the City embarks on a review of its Official Plan, Williams offers that Toronto needs to evaluate how it can better balance development opportunities while addressing unemployment in areas where there are not the same development pressures as the Kings and Liberty Village.

As the evening progressed David Gerofsky, president and CEO of Great Gulf Group of Companies, offered insight from the perspective of a developer. “Human resources are driving people back into the urban areas,” he said, explaining that it is lifestyle factors that are drawing people – and the corporations that follow them — downtown. Gerofsky referenced Great Gulf’s recent purchase of the 30-acre former Lever Brothers site which, in its prime, had 700 people working in less than 500,000 square feet of building. Early planning stages for the now-vacant industrial lands include multi-phased mixed-use development that when fully built-out, Gerofsky predicts seven to eight thousand jobs will be created and over three million square feet will be developed. While the primary use for the site will be employment, Gerofsky concluded that “there has to be mixed-used to make it successful.”

To add to the already rich discussion, Hannah Evans, director of Partnerships and Consultation with the Ontario Growth Secretariat, discussed the challenge of provincial policy in its need to be applicable to a multitude of municipalities in Ontario, not just one city. In the broadest sense the Provincial Policy Statement and the Growth Plan speak to the need for municipalities to plan for diversified employment, which includes retail, commercial and industrial uses. While presentations by Greenberg and Gerofsky strongly advocated for mixed-use, Evans concluded her presentation on a different tone, noting that different jobs need different built form, and that not all jobs can be supported in a mixed-use environment.

“The challenge is in defining employment, and it is difficult to find a definition that suits all municipalities,” said the evening’s final panelist, Jeff Davies, partner at Davies Howe Partners LLP. Davies highlighted the challenges faced by the provincially mandated five-year review necessary for making any significant changes to employment lands, when the “reality is that the world and market changes much quicker.”

At the end of the evening all five panelists engaged with the audience in a discussion that focused on defining employment in a post-industrial era and establishing metrics to define success for mixed-use development. The challenge remains for Toronto to be able to accommodate immediate opportunities for growth while at the same time preserve its ability to attract different forms of industry in the long-term.

Ten days later the discussion on employment lands continued as ULI Toronto members were guided by Lynn Clay, executive director of the Liberty Village BIA, on a walking tour of Liberty Village. Like The Kings, Liberty Village has seen tremendous regeneration through redevelopment. There are now approximately 20,000 people living in the area with over 500 businesses supporting 7,500 employees. Industries such as television production and media companies, software and Internet development companies, insurance, real estate, artists, designers, and more are thriving in this compact quadrant.

Over the course of the tour the conversation turned to how development and appropriate land use designations can continue to drive growth in this area as it continues to mature. Reiterating points made during the panel discussion on April 16, the challenge Toronto faces is one where change is happening quicker than policies that support growth.

As the tour concluded, the discussion focused on how the City can better support mixed-use development. Understanding Toronto’s need to balance long-term job growth and present day opportunities, the need for flexible policies to encourage better mixed-uses is imperative. If policies remain too prescriptive, opportunities for successful neighbourhoods like Liberty Village and the Kings will not be actualized.

Evan Weinberg
Planning and Development Manager,
Downtown Yonge