|
|
Toronto Green Standard Sets Bar for Development Approval
January 22, 2010
High-Performance Buildings to Qualify for Incentives
By Barbara Carss
Future multi-residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects in Toronto will have to comply with 44 minimum performance measures to secure development approval. The Toronto Green Standard (TGS) will apply to all planning applications beginning January 31, 2010.
It establishes requirements for: air quality; emissions reductions and energy efficiency; water quality, quantity and efficiency; ecological protection and enhancement; and solid waste reduction and diversion. Most of the measures relate to site orientation, design features and amenities rather than building systems and technology, but all new development is mandated to deliver at least 25 percent better performance than the standards of the Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB). Green standards with different but comparable measures will apply to low-rise residential and low-rise nonresidential projects.
Developers can also voluntarily aim to meet more rigorous conditions set out in a Tier 2 of the Toronto Green Standard to qualify for a 20 percent refund of development charges. To be eligible, buildings must achieve at least 35 percent better performance than the MNECB and six additional mandatory Tier 2 requirements along with three of the 10 other optional Tier 2 measures. The refund program will cover Site Plan applications submitted after April 30, 2009.
“We set up specific targets. This is all measurable stuff,” observes Joe D’Abramo, Director of Zoning By-law and Environmental Planning for the City of Toronto. “Really, what we care about is how the building and site interact with our infrastructure and our environment.”
Through an agreement with the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), Toronto-based LEED registrants will be able to document attainment of TGS requirements at the same time as LEED prerequisites and credits, thus avoiding duplication of processes. The two programs are not interchangeable, however. The TGS has more mandatory elements and requirements that are specifically tailored to Toronto’s natural features, environmental and infrastructure pressures, and design and development ambitions.
“LEED is very optional and it’s too optional in terms of what we want to achieve,” D’Abramo explains.
Other observers suggest the TGS might be too ambiguous. “It would have been preferable for the City to adopt a more popular rating system like LEED or similar type program that would give us a clear basis to know how to deliver what they’re looking for,” says Andrew Pride, Vice President of the Minto Green Team, which has overseen development of three LEED projects in Toronto, including a 148-unit LEED Gold rental apartment building and a two-tower, 876-unit LEED Gold condominium complex.
“We are running into issues of people not knowing how to implement what the City is asking for. There is a lack of experience in the design and engineering community and we are running into issues of implementation onsite with the trades as well,” concurs Darius Rybak, Vice President of Operations with Aspen Ridge Homes, which is seeking to secure LEED Silver certification for a 500-unit condominium project now nearing completion in downtown Toronto.
Costs & Complications
Many of the required measures – such as bicycle parking and associated facilities, or dedicated areas for collection and storage of recycling and organics—are straightforward to interpret and implement in new construction, but may increase capital costs. Others—such as requirements to select native plant species – shouldn’t necessarily create any extra costs. However, stipulations for green roofs, storm water retention and managing the quality of storm water runoff could present design challenges, as well as extra capital costs.
Although Toronto’s new Green Roof By-law exempts multi-residential buildings with fewer than six storeys or tower roofs with floor plates of less than 8,100 square feet, those buildings will have meet the TGS requirement for reduction of urban heat island effect. That calls for a green roof on 50 percent of roof area, high-albedo or cool roofing on 100 percent of the roof, or a combination of a green roof and cool roofing on 75 percent of the roof surface.
This could also require some new skill sets for condominium boards of directors, and create new maintenance costs and considerations for reserve fund planning. “We are required to build it, but I’m not sure what happens after we’re gone and the condo corporation is operating the building,” Rybak notes.
The undifferentiated energy performance standard for all building sectors could in fact favour commercial, industrial and institutional buildings since energy savings are typically more difficult to achieve in multi-residential buildings with a more diverse range of occupants who are more likely to behave in ways that undermine the effectiveness of energy-efficient systems and technology. Both City officials and developers suggest the requirement to outperform the MNECB by 35 percent could be the most difficult of all Tier 2 criteria.
“Our buildings are built quite efficiently and we’re just hitting that 35 percent mark in the multi-residential side of things, whereas in commercial it’s no problem,” Pride reports. “In multi-residential, 35 percent is going to be a challenge for most developers.”
However, he applauds the philosophy of the Tier 2 standards. “I’m very pleased to see the City moving in the right direction in providing incentives for builders that go above and beyond Code,” he adds.
Incentive Criteria
Other measures required to meet Tier 2 standards and qualify for the development charge refund include commissioning, reducing heat island effect on non-roof areas, lighting controls and water-efficiency features. Among the 10 choices of optional Tier 2 measures, Pride predicts Minto will not be incorporating salvaged, refurbished or reused building materials equivalent to 5 percent of a project’s value.
“That’s a significant task in a retail environment like a condominium,” he maintains. “As a standard, I’m not sure how well the market will accept that level of refurbished content in the units.”
Rybak suggests buyers’ interest in energy-efficient and sustainable features is still rather superficial anyway. “There is a small group of purchasers who will seek out green elements and features, but the majority of purchasers really are not going out of their way to look for those features in a building,” he says. “Buyers would like to have environmentally friendly elements in their buildings, but there is a very, very small percentage that is willing to pay extra for it.”
Ultimately, added capital costs get passed through to homebuyers, residential and commercial tenants, but a 20 percent refund of development charges will go a long way toward balancing that.
“It’s very substantial and very attractive. From a financial standpoint it does make sense to pursue Tier 2,” Rybak acknowledges. “What I would be wary of before committing to this is being really able to deliver it. But we are getting so much more experience each day on these issues. Maybe I will become much more comfortable.”
Fostering developers’ learning curve is one of the City’s goals for the program. Planning officials project that a maximum of 20 percent of applicants will meet Tier 2 standards and qualify for the development charge rebate although they anticipate the number will be closer to 10 percent at least initially.
“In preparing this, we looked at buildings that have been built to this level,” D’Abramo says. “There are several examples. That’s how we know it’s possible.”
For more information about the Toronto Green Standard, see the web site at www.toronto.ca/planning/greendevelopment.htm.
This article was excerpted from the November 2009 issue of Property Management Report.
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
| |
| < Back |
|
|
|
| Copyright © Canadian Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved. |
|
|
|
|