Jennifer Keesmaat, chief planner, City of Toronto, talks life and real estate – Part 1

Few people around Toronto City Hall have the profile – and pressure – of Jennifer Keesmaat. As chief planner, Keesmaat is charged with overseeing the City’s Official Plan – which these days involves the development and transit expansion that shape our city, streets and neighbourhoods. Monumental tasks, to be sure.That’s the pressure.The profile comes from the fact the former urban design consultant is very active on social media. She maintains an official blog and is a frequent flyer on Twitter, not just to vent, but to articulate on the issues and educate on the processes.More than just an advocate of density and walkability, Keesmaat practices what she tweets.Renter's Guide sat down with Keesmaat to get her thoughts on urban planning and transit, and what Torontonians can expect from her office.RG: The Economist recently named Toronto as the most “livable” city in the world, though it doesn’t seem they took transit and commute times into consideration – factors you cite as seriously affecting our quality of life. How do you think Toronto would rank, giving those factors due consideration?Jennifer Keesmaat: There is no doubt that our movement systems are antiquated and compromising our quality of life. Commute times on transit and in vehicles are trying, to say the least. As cities urbanize, inevitably they confront the need to invest significantly in transit, cycling and creating a higher quality pedestrian realm, particularly for pedestrians. We are struggling through this transition – but I believe we’ll get there.One of our key objectives in our Official Plan is to “move less.” We recognize the need to plan the city in such a way that it is possible to walk, cycle or take a short transit ride from home as part of both working and playing. In some parts of the city, land uses have been segregated, facilitating reliance on vehicles. We are trying to remediate this by planning our land uses differently. So we need to be really strategic with our infill development, to ensure it is located and designed to facilitate walkable communities.RG: You have said midrise development, transit and the waterfront are key areas of focus for the city and you as chief planner. How much progress are you making in each of those areas? In 10 to 15 years, say, how will they have improved?Jennifer Keesmaat: On transit: We are making progress, although it may seem slow. We have significant transit investments underway in the city – 19 km of LRT is being built right through the heart of our city, and the Yonge Line is being extended to the north, as we speak. We are also working aggressively to bring the next iteration of transit to life: SmartTrack, the Relief Line, Finch and Shepherd LRTs and the Scarborough subway. The challenge is, we are so far behind, it is going to be some time before these investments begin to have an impact on movement choices in the city.Midrise development – between six and 11 storeys – is a really a critical piece of the puzzle for our city. We have lots of gaps to fill where we have existing infrastructure and amenities, but under-developed sites. Midrise can be accommodated in such a way as to add amenities within walking distance of existing, single use communities, particularly in our suburbs, where it is currently possible to get anywhere only by car. So building our midrise development is inextricably linked to making our city more walkable and reducing traffic congestion. We have more than 60 projects under development today – which is great – but we are reviewing our guidelines to unlock some of the smaller, trickier sites. RG: Development Charges are often cited by builders as one of the chief causes of rising prices of new homes and condos in Toronto. They argue that the fees are rising arbitrarily and unchecked, and that, as a result, new-home buyers are paying more than their fair share for new infrastructure. Put this into perspective for us.Jennifer Keesmaat: Development Charges are meant to be a “user fee” to ensure that new development pays for the municipal services that will be required as a result of the impact of the new development. However, we are not in a full cost recovery situation yet, and many municipalities are striving to better align revenues with true costs. One of the reasons many municipalities have big operating and capital deficits is as a result of under-charging for development. Getting our pricing right is an important part of creating a city that is sustainable. Not doing so tends to incentivize urban sprawl, at significant longer term operating cost to cities. This is something we know how to fix, and something we should fix.RG: I understand Mayor John Tory is considering a different scale of DC for downtown condos — specifically, projects whose construction might impede/interfere with downtown traffic might face even higher Development Charges. How likely is this to happen?Jennifer Keesmaat: There is a discussion underway about charging developers “rent,” essentially, for the space that they occupy on a municipal street during construction. Doing so would be a way to recognize the impact on traffic operations and the public realm, and would hopefully minimize the amount of time that hording remains up, blocking public rights-of-way during construction projects.For Part 2 of this story, visit rentersguide.ca on Wednesday, Feb. 25.