The City of Brampton wants to put the brakes on its growth.

Concerned that rapid development is straining services, Brampton's planning committee, backed by Mayor Susan Fennell, voted unanimously in February to cut the number of housing starts from 2004's record of 9,573 to 5,500 units in 2006.

A confluence of events have made Brampton a development hotspot.

"Mississauga has run out of land and other municipalities have servicing constraints," says John Corbett, Brampton's commissioner for planning, design and development. "We have sufficient sanitary and water supply and ample land, for now, so you're talking about excellent attributes for growth."

Brennan O'Connor, Business Edge
Paula Tenuta, municipal government adviser for the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association, and Michael Gagnon of Gagnon Law Bozzo Urban Planners Ltd. both believe Brampton's residential housing cap will fail to achieve the objectives the municipality thinks it will.

As a result, the city, located northwest of Toronto, has seen its population increase to 430,000 from 271,000 since 1996.

Brampton planners argue they are prepared to grow their city by 18,000 people annually, or 5,500 new residential units. Beyond that, development could outpace the city's ability to service it.

Sean Marshall, 24, who has lived all his life in Brampton, points to examples of services already strained by growth. "Public recreation and cultural facilities have not kept up. New pools and rec centres are under construction, but will fill up as soon as they are opened. Mississauga's building new libraries, but Brampton still has only four - the same number there were 15 years ago.

"Traffic can be worse than in Toronto," Marshall says. "Bovaird Drive through northeast Brampton is only now being widened, even though the area has already built up. As for transit, we've had an overhaul to serve new areas and improve frequencies, but to do that some routes were cut back or eliminated.

"And of course, the hospital is bursting at the seams," the graduate student says.

The prospect of a cap, however, worries Brampton's development industry, says Michael Gagnon, principal planner and managing partner of Gagnon Law Bozzo Urban Planners Ltd., which represents the Development Industry Cap Group.

"We formed when the City of Brampton announced its intention to implement an annual residential development cap," says Gagnon. "We understand Brampton's motivation, but we don't believe the cap as contemplated will achieve the municipality's objectives of managing growth and delivering infrastructure."

The development cap does not stop construction outright.

"We are obliged under provincial policy to provide an adequate three-year supply of owned land," Corbett says. "A month ago we said that we can limit the number of starts to 5,500 units in 2006. We expect the final decision to be taken before September."

With previously approved developments allowed to go ahead, as many as 8,700 units will be approved in 2005 and 6,500 per year for five years after that.

Paula Tenuta, municipal government adviser for the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association, argues this still restricts supply.

"A cap will not solve any infrastructure problems the city is facing," Tenuta says. "Traffic is one of the biggest challenges facing all GTA municipalities. A cap won't necessarily relieve congestion in Brampton and the city won't benefit from the development charges associated with that growth."

Tenuta says the provincial Greenbelt Act and the Places to Grow Act restrict housing supply around Brampton. The Greenbelt Act prevents development on one million acres of rural land in addition to the 800,000 acres of the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Niagara Escarpment already protected. The Places to Grow Act points to Brampton as a key growth area.

"The recently adopted Greenbelt has reduced the amount of land available to accommodate the more than four million people expected to move to the GTA in the next 30 years," Tenuta says.

"The city should ensure it has in place policies that can accommodate a portion of this growth - especially as Brampton has been earmarked as a growth centre in the Places to Grow plan."

Andrea Kelly, media relations co-ordinator for the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, is less worried about a conflict between Brampton's development cap and provincial policy. "Local councils are empowered to develop as they like, so long as they adhere to the policies set out by the provincial planning acts."

"The Places to Grow legislation isn't meant to micromanage planning issues," says Wilson Lee, director of communications for the Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal. "The act broadly sets out parameters for future growth.

"We'd like to see 40 per cent of all new growth confined in established areas like Brampton," Lee adds. "As long as the growth areas meet intensification targets, Brampton's development cap won't be in conflict.

"These acts don't just apply to Brampton," Lee says. "If development gets pushed to Caledon or Milton, those municipalities will have to ensure that growth occurs in a way consistent with those acts."

Milton Mayor Gordon Krantz says his municipality has had to face such growth. "Milton had virtually no growth for almost 20 years, until 2000. We've added 18,000 to 20,000 new residents since.”

Milton's population in 2000 was 36,400.

In the mayor's view, Milton's strategic plan kept development in check.

"Ten years ago we said we had to maintain our rural character and that character is intact," Krantz says. "The development community had to pony up some big bucks to put services in, because Milton is an inland community.

"It costs to make sure you've got the infrastructure and the fire department and the police department and the garbage pickup and the schools and the soccer fields and all the places."

For Gagnon, municipal constraints are OK as long as developers can plan around them.

"If a cap is to be instituted, we believe it should be applied to building permits rather than draft-plan approval. That way we can still master-plan and implement servicing programs. If the city applies the cap at the draft-plan approval stage, they will create a situation where developers are forced to seek multiple approvals for their developments which will serve only to make the process more bureaucratic," he says.

"If a subdivision receives draft-plan approval, the developer can sell lots and that provokes the demand for services," Corbett counters.

"Limiting the number of starts at the building-permit stage may prevent some homeowners from entering their homes on the closing date promised by the developer.

You can imagine the hue and cry that would result from that."

But to Tenuta, rapid development is not the problem. "Brampton already has the highest development charge in the GTA at $15,681 per single family unit. One would imagine that they should be able to provide the infrastructure that these charges are meant to pay for."

New homeowners in Mississauga pay $8,908 per single-family unit, while Caledon residents pay $11,064.

Toronto's new single-family homes are charged $4,370 per unit.

Gagnon agrees. "The city must service development that has already been approved and built and for which development charges have already been collected. They have collected a lot of funds over the past few years, and we believe the time has come for them to mobilize this capital to implement much-needed municipal infrastructure."

"We always wonder how it is that the industry pays so much in development charges, but the roads either take so long to be built, or are not built," Tenuta says.

"There seems to be a disconnect when the industry is being requested to pay more and more."

Sean Marshall approves of the measures Brampton has taken to match growth with new services.

"I think the city is doing a better job recently, by delaying new subdivisions until schools are built, encouraging more infill developments near downtown."

But it's not enough for him to stick around.

"I'm moving out this September to a condo in North York, about a five-minute bus ride to the subway, across from a 24-hour Dominion, a Shoppers Drug Mart and a library. It's a small inexpensive one-bedroom, but I'll be able to live without a car."

(James Bow can be reached at bow@businessedge.ca)