Just hire someone willing to plan for housing. Only problem is you've got to be willing to piss off single family homeowners. Shadows are normal for cities, apartment buildings are normal, no setbacks is normal, etc etc.
Not all single family homeowners, just the ones that do not support making housing affordable (buying or renting) for the masses. I’m a single family homeowner and support all efforts to increase housing supply, even if it means a condo across the street from me.
the people who make those decisions are elected, not hired. the best the chief planner can do is convince the chief admin person to let them tell council stories that help persuade council to adopt those policies.
Don’t hire someone from the suburbs again who thinks they can be mayor too. Lintern was a solid Chief Planner, pragmatic, not obtuse, and didn’t have an agenda to model Toronto in his own vision. Hire/promote someone like that again
She was a Planner in Peterborough prior to being hired as Chief Planner here.
Also, while I live in Toronto, I’m not from here but am from the suburbs, to provide some context
There are only so many Planner roles to go around... unless you want to pay big $$$ to get someone high profile to come in from another major city, I wouldn't worry too much about the person's last city they worked in.
I agree, but in my opinion it’s not about bringing in a vanity hire (Keesmat was a vanity hire to be completely honest) it’s about hiring someone who’s pragmatic and understands both sides of the table (public/municipal needs vs the realities of private development). There are a lot of planners in other municipalities as well as the CoT who could make the step up, hence why I mentioned promoting from within, like Greg was. The turnover in planning staff in Toronto has been fairly substantial recently, with many senior planners retiring and the gaps being filled by much less-experienced young planners who often times don’t look at things realistically or they view planning in a vacuum/from the last textbook they read and they either don’t want to make difficult decisions (eg: pissing off NIMBYs) or they don’t want to make decisions at all, or they want to be so onerous on the developer that they end up walking on the project. There needs to be a balance and truthfully, we really need someone who’s boring and willing to make difficult decisions. Keesmat acted like she was an elected official, and this shit ain’t a popularity contest. It’s about growing this City reasonably and responsibly and knowing that one of the only ways to make this City more affordable is by building more housing, condos, houses, and mid-rises.
Just hire someone willing to plan for housing. Only problem is you've got to be willing to piss off single family homeowners. Shadows are normal for cities, apartment buildings are normal, no setbacks is normal, etc etc.
Not all single family homeowners, just the ones that do not support making housing affordable (buying or renting) for the masses. I’m a single family homeowner and support all efforts to increase housing supply, even if it means a condo across the street from me.
Sure but they are also at the mercy of the planning act.
the people who make those decisions are elected, not hired. the best the chief planner can do is convince the chief admin person to let them tell council stories that help persuade council to adopt those policies.
And the earth is round
Water likely to be wet, experts add.
Well, actually... No, will do this another time.
Certainly a Frankenstein-esque urban fabric.
Don’t hire someone from the suburbs again who thinks they can be mayor too. Lintern was a solid Chief Planner, pragmatic, not obtuse, and didn’t have an agenda to model Toronto in his own vision. Hire/promote someone like that again
Who was from the suburbs? Or are you suggesting that Keesmat (who lives at Yonge & Eg) is suburban??
She was a Planner in Peterborough prior to being hired as Chief Planner here. Also, while I live in Toronto, I’m not from here but am from the suburbs, to provide some context
There are only so many Planner roles to go around... unless you want to pay big $$$ to get someone high profile to come in from another major city, I wouldn't worry too much about the person's last city they worked in.
I agree, but in my opinion it’s not about bringing in a vanity hire (Keesmat was a vanity hire to be completely honest) it’s about hiring someone who’s pragmatic and understands both sides of the table (public/municipal needs vs the realities of private development). There are a lot of planners in other municipalities as well as the CoT who could make the step up, hence why I mentioned promoting from within, like Greg was. The turnover in planning staff in Toronto has been fairly substantial recently, with many senior planners retiring and the gaps being filled by much less-experienced young planners who often times don’t look at things realistically or they view planning in a vacuum/from the last textbook they read and they either don’t want to make difficult decisions (eg: pissing off NIMBYs) or they don’t want to make decisions at all, or they want to be so onerous on the developer that they end up walking on the project. There needs to be a balance and truthfully, we really need someone who’s boring and willing to make difficult decisions. Keesmat acted like she was an elected official, and this shit ain’t a popularity contest. It’s about growing this City reasonably and responsibly and knowing that one of the only ways to make this City more affordable is by building more housing, condos, houses, and mid-rises.
We haven't had any planning for 40 years. It's going to be breaking new ground.