It’s been a long time since Helen Cooper waded into the oft-messy world of municipal politics.
Having left the mayor’s seat back in 1993, a mid-term departure to accept an NDP government appointment to chair the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), Cooper has spent the last two decades largely silent on municipal issues due to her provincial employment.
However, now that she’s retired and living closer to the downtown in an Ontario Street building, she has a front-row seat to the high rise controversy that’s currently enveloping the area. Or, as Cooper may put it, Block D 2.0.
Cooper was a guest speaker at a recent ‘Towers, Taxes, Tactics’ meeting organized by a coalition of disgruntled community groups to seek consensus on ways to oppose the recent number of over-the-top development applications. The group is clearly galled at developers not just wanting to exceed municipal height rules by a couple of floors but, shockingly, in some cases, double the allowance. So if the Official Plan and zoning says eight, they want 16.
No wonder many Kingstonians are restless, furious and in a fighting mood. And, with the perception of a mostly placid city council bent on intensification, it may not be a good thing heading into an election year.
Targeting certain council members for “replacement” was one of several themes to emerge from the church hall meeting, attended by about 125 residents who seem ready to grab their pitch forks and light the torches in a march to City Hall.
Cooper was asked to opine her thoughts in the high rise vs. heritage debate. Though she admittedly does not follow council business anymore – “in fact, not at all” – she couldn’t resist taking a few jabs at council, planners and developers over issues of vertical sprawl. With almost stagnant population growth, according to the 2016 Census, she wondered who’s going to fill the proposed new condos and apartments, such as a 20-storey tower on the waterfront site of the former Marine Museum, 16-storey Capitol condo on Princess Street, and 17 and 19-storey buildings on lower Queen Street.
IN8 Developments proposed 15 storey Capitol Condo
Suburbanites are not about to evacuate for the lure of these projects, and the argument these buildings will make Kingston as a retirement capital doesn’t wash either as most people “age in place,” Cooper added.
The conceptual designs, she continued, always show us the view of a seagull in summer and not the ground-floor impact.
Cooper also read a passage from the municipal bible, the Official Plan, which speaks to Kingston striving to be a sustainable city. “Kingston’s boast of being the most sustainable city in the world isn’t going to be that way if these things get built.”
It wasn’t just Cooper speaking out against excessively tall buildings.
Another speaker wondered who’s running the city? Council or the “hired help” (planners).
Meeting co-organizer and former councillor Vicki Schmolka summed up the crowd’s mood:
“There is a lot of unhappiness, a lot of worry and a lot of concern about what the city is up to.”
The meeting also touched on why some developers may be appealing their own revised projects to the OMB even before they can be vetted by council or the public. Usually it’s council or the public filing the appeals, not the other way around. The general theory is developers are eager to get their projects before the OMB before the planning tribunal itself is overhauled, stripped of its powers and local planning bodies are established to handle such appeals with more weight on the Official Plan, as the province has indicated. The key is that any appeals filed before the reforms take hold would still be covered under the current OMB format.
Schmolka noted a recent city meeting to hear about negotiating community benefits with developers as trade-offs for extra height twisted into an “extraordinary” scenario where developers were asking what benefits the city should give them to bring their buildings to town.
Kingstonians have always had a testy relationship with developers, even though they bring new housing, investment, jobs and taxes to a city that needs them. The issue is finding the right balance of residential development that fits in with the neighbourhoods where they are built.
Lately, though, it seems the sky is the limit for some of these projects.
The ink is still drying on the Official Plan update before some want to amend it seven ways to Sunday.
Cooper got an ovation for coming out of retirement to take a stand with the group. In some ways, the former mayor has come full circle since development pressures are what launched her political career back in 1980.
But the group knows it’s going to take more than an ex-mayor to get the height right.
I have been a journalist for over 35 years, primarily in Toronto and Kingston, working in all forms of media; television, radio, print and web. My blog was created to give readers more choices and more information about the community around them. I called it 'horseshoe news' because Kingston city councillors sit around a table that's often referred to as 'the horseshoe' when making key decisions that impact residents and taxpayers. I have covered municipal politics in Kingston, Ont. since 1990.
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Former Kingston mayor Helen Cooper addresses town hall meeting. Photo by Bill Hutchins
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It’s been a long time since Helen Cooper waded into the oft-messy world of municipal politics.
Having left the mayor’s seat back in 1993, a mid-term departure to accept an NDP government appointment to chair the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), Cooper has spent the last two decades largely silent on municipal issues due to her provincial employment.
However, now that she’s retired and living closer to the downtown in an Ontario Street building, she has a front-row seat to the high rise controversy that’s currently enveloping the area. Or, as Cooper may put it, Block D 2.0.
Cooper was a guest speaker at a recent ‘Towers, Taxes, Tactics’ meeting organized by a coalition of disgruntled community groups to seek consensus on ways to oppose the recent number of over-the-top development applications. The group is clearly galled at developers not just wanting to exceed municipal height rules by a couple of floors but, shockingly, in some cases, double the allowance. So if the Official Plan and zoning says eight, they want 16.
No wonder many Kingstonians are restless, furious and in a fighting mood. And, with the perception of a mostly placid city council bent on intensification, it may not be a good thing heading into an election year.
Targeting certain council members for “replacement” was one of several themes to emerge from the church hall meeting, attended by about 125 residents who seem ready to grab their pitch forks and light the torches in a march to City Hall.
Cooper was asked to opine her thoughts in the high rise vs. heritage debate. Though she admittedly does not follow council business anymore – “in fact, not at all” – she couldn’t resist taking a few jabs at council, planners and developers over issues of vertical sprawl. With almost stagnant population growth, according to the 2016 Census, she wondered who’s going to fill the proposed new condos and apartments, such as a 20-storey tower on the waterfront site of the former Marine Museum, 16-storey Capitol condo on Princess Street, and 17 and 19-storey buildings on lower Queen Street.
IN8 Developments proposed 15 storey Capitol Condo
Suburbanites are not about to evacuate for the lure of these projects, and the argument these buildings will make Kingston as a retirement capital doesn’t wash either as most people “age in place,” Cooper added.
The conceptual designs, she continued, always show us the view of a seagull in summer and not the ground-floor impact.
Cooper also read a passage from the municipal bible, the Official Plan, which speaks to Kingston striving to be a sustainable city. “Kingston’s boast of being the most sustainable city in the world isn’t going to be that way if these things get built.”
It wasn’t just Cooper speaking out against excessively tall buildings.
Another speaker wondered who’s running the city? Council or the “hired help” (planners).
Meeting co-organizer and former councillor Vicki Schmolka summed up the crowd’s mood:
The meeting also touched on why some developers may be appealing their own revised projects to the OMB even before they can be vetted by council or the public. Usually it’s council or the public filing the appeals, not the other way around. The general theory is developers are eager to get their projects before the OMB before the planning tribunal itself is overhauled, stripped of its powers and local planning bodies are established to handle such appeals with more weight on the Official Plan, as the province has indicated. The key is that any appeals filed before the reforms take hold would still be covered under the current OMB format.
Schmolka noted a recent city meeting to hear about negotiating community benefits with developers as trade-offs for extra height twisted into an “extraordinary” scenario where developers were asking what benefits the city should give them to bring their buildings to town.
Kingstonians have always had a testy relationship with developers, even though they bring new housing, investment, jobs and taxes to a city that needs them. The issue is finding the right balance of residential development that fits in with the neighbourhoods where they are built.
Lately, though, it seems the sky is the limit for some of these projects.
The ink is still drying on the Official Plan update before some want to amend it seven ways to Sunday.
Cooper got an ovation for coming out of retirement to take a stand with the group. In some ways, the former mayor has come full circle since development pressures are what launched her political career back in 1980.
But the group knows it’s going to take more than an ex-mayor to get the height right.
bhutchins
I have been a journalist for over 35 years, primarily in Toronto and Kingston, working in all forms of media; television, radio, print and web. My blog was created to give readers more choices and more information about the community around them. I called it 'horseshoe news' because Kingston city councillors sit around a table that's often referred to as 'the horseshoe' when making key decisions that impact residents and taxpayers. I have covered municipal politics in Kingston, Ont. since 1990.
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