The EQ Journal Blog

(All Else Being Equal)

I recently wrote a letter of support for a Dharma project (not the Dharma that is in the hit TV series LOST but an Ottawa-based developer) that wants to bring more people to live and work in or close to Stittsville Main Street. Here is what I wrote to the Secretary-Treasurer of Ottawa’s Committee of Adjustment:

“I am a Broker at Partners Advantage GMAC Real Estate and we have a branch location at 1445 Stittsville Main Street. In addition, I have a background in urban economics, development and entrepreneurship.

I am aware that there are some concerns on the part of the Stittsville Village Association about this development.

I believe that rezonings, official plan amendments and applications to the Committee of Adjustment should, in principal, be a process of affirmation between the proponent and his or her neighbours.

To that end, I would like to point out a number of factors that tend to support this development and this application to the Committee.

1. Do we build cities for cars or for people?

I believe that we should build cites for people; cars are an important consideration but they should be a lower priority.

Stittsville Main Street is a major commuter road but achieving high speed for through-traffic should not be the top planning priority. High speeds make vehicle ingress and egress from the many small buildings along Stittsville Main Street more dangerous and make it more dangerous and less pleasant for pedestrians.

In other parts of the City of Ottawa, such as Westboro and the Byward Market, drivers tend to good naturedly accept lower traffic speeds as a price they pay for a successful mixed use zone—where people can live, shop, work and be entertained and where pedestrian movements are fostered and protected.

Neo-urbanist planning encourages:

a. on-street parking is allowed (this buffers the pedestrian and encourages pedestrian traffic).
b. people can live and work at home.
c. people can shop nearby.
d. there is a mixing together of folks from differing socio economic strata.
e. people build close to the road.
f. they have front porches.
g. roads are narrower.
h. densities are higher.
i. elders can stay in their communities.
j. the gardener, nurse, school teacher can find affordable housing in the neighborhoods where they actually work.
k. in-home apartments and granny flats and apartments above the garage increase property values not decrease them.
l. rooming houses and live-in students are tolerated.
m. apartments above shops are built.
n. there is a tolerance for diversity.
o. problems are solved at ‘town hall’ style meetings.
p. schools, government offices, post offices, libraries, places of worship get the best sites in town not the worst.
q. short blocks are common.
r. roads are grid based.
s. every road is two way.
t. left turns are permitted.
u. connectedness is the underlying principle of town design.
v. everyone suffers some through traffic so that no one suffers all of it.
w. grided systems prove that the slower the individual vehicle goes, the faster you move traffic over the entire system (i.e., average vehicle speeds are higher not lower even though there are no ‘collector’ roads designed by traffic engineers to move vehicles at 60 or 80 kph (which they never do because every trip is a car trip and all cars have to be on the one collector)).
x. there are no beggar-thy-neighbour policies whereby you put speed bumps, no through traffic, no left turn, one way and other self defeating traffic management policies in place.
y. cities use vertical transition lines and the wow effect (window-on-the-world, where all buildings open to the street at grade).
z. density bonusing is coming to encourage mixed use (read residential use) in commercial zones.

(Build-To Lines Instead of Setbacks + On-Street Parking = Walkable Cities)

Orville Station, in my view, embraces many of these principles and should be a welcome addition to both the business and residential communities.

2. Does increased density help or hurt real estate values in the neighborhood?

Prima facie, if density increases in a neighborhood, property values should climb. If a mixed use project such as Orville Station is approved, it brings more people to live, work and shop in the area. This increases demand—people who live in the area tend to shop there. People who work in the area may also want to live in that area.

When demand increases, prices follow, otherwise the rent curve in downtown Manhattan would be the same as downtown Ottawa, which is patently not the case. Density, all else being equal, does increase property values, not only for the specific site but for the neighborhood as well.

The major proviso on this statement is that crime rates in the area do not increase. Experience has shown that when a city encourages mixed use, the area sees a decrease in crime and vandalism. This is because you do not have a suburb where all its residents leave during the work day and a business core that does not see all its workers leave at night.

Eyes on the street, both during the day and at night, have been shown to improve public safety.

3. Can we relax parking requirements without jeopardizing quiet enjoyment?

The proposed variances to the parking requirements appear to be justified and minor in nature. Again, there needs to be a decision taken to encourage more density while providing reasonably for the private car.

Neo-urbanists believe that some flexibility on the part of planning authorities will result in more interesting and, frankly, better urban design.

It is expensive to operate, maintain, occasionally replace, insure and store a private automobile. Cities should accommodate people of all social-economic status, even those who do not own or do not wish to own cars.

Accommodating the parking ratio for Orville Station will be a step in that direction and may even have the effect of improving transit ridership as well.”

Prof Bruce, June 3rd, 2009

(Disclosure: since we have a Brokerage branch on Stittsville Main Street, there could be a direct or indriect benefit to Salespersons or Brokers who are selling residential real estate from having more product in the area.)