Tuxedo Yards; the challenge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/03/2009 (6069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is no "normal" way of approving a development like the proposed Tuxedo Yards Redevelopment, which is steaming toward approval at city hall with such Titanic inertia that it seems unstoppable. Which is not to say that it should be stopped, but it is to say that full-speed ahead is not the most prudent course to set, as the current economic crisis and history attest.

As conceived, Tuxedo Yards is a commercial colossus by any standard, and certainly by the standards of Winnipeg. At 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, it is the largest commercial development in Winnipeg’s history, eclipsing the reigning and nearby champ, Polo Park, at 1.3 million square feet. It will cost a projected $400 million to build over 10 years and requires the city to upend its long-term plan and rethink its infrastructure priorities.

The stack of paper reports and documents made available in advance of the single hearing scheduled for public review of the project indicates that much careful thought has gone into it over a long period of time, all of it, unfortunately, behind closed doors. The material was publicly posted March 5, three months after the announcement in December that the project existed and would be anchored by an IKEA store. The release came a scant 13 days in advance of the public hearing, but astonishingly 11 days earlier than required, apparently an acknowledgement that more time than usual will be required for the public to come to grips with the implications of so great an undertaking.

Critics of secrecy, the city’s often uninspired planning and of elected officials who seem open for business at any cost have rightly complained that it appears the project is being rammed down Winnipeg’s throat with take it or leave it brinksmanship.

They correctly point out that the hearing is overloaded with far too many complex issues — rezonings, variances, agreements and studies (20 not counting sub-agreements) — to be adequately and critically reviewed in a single day. This public review process is woefully inadequate for a project of this size, one that will affect development and transportation planning forever. It reflects a political arrogance and condescension that is shameful. If it is that the city cannot expand the time for hearings because it has agreed in secret not to, then the shame should fall on the mayor’s office and its occupants. Councillors should look closely at a recent report calling for more, not less, public scrutiny at city hall.

Public review, however, is about process and transparency. What of the project itself as presented in some 300 pages of city documents?

Well, obviously, it is big — or rather, it is big on the drawing board. That at once represents some of the risks and the benefits involved. The site is huge, 200 acres of largely "vacant" land that, oddly, is close to the centre of the city relative to the miles of developing commercial and residential sprawl south of it. It is situated, in fact, to take advantage of sprawl, not to add to it.

While "progressive" thinkers see the project as a betrayal of promises to plan "green," to incorporate more not less public transportation into development, to shrink rather than expand concrete footprints, to put downtown first and more, the fact is that those trains left the station when the Doer government decided to make Crown land the agent of change for sprawling Waverley West.

The infrastructure that is now needed to accommodate that decision might be wasteful and environmentally unfriendly, but it now is needed and will serve the Tuxedo Yards site whether or not it is developed. Kenaston Boulevard, for example, must expand to serve southwestern sprawl with or without IKEA. Tuxedo Yards might speed up the time frame for more paved lanes on existing routes, but it will not create the need.

What it will do is require some new routes, eventually, like a link to Pembina Highway from Waverley Street, and, immediately, a massive expansion of Sterling Lyon Parkway at a cost of $14 million. The developer agrees to pay those costs up front to ensure the expanded roadways are in place before they are actually needed so that they will be there as they are needed. That means that in the unlikely event that no other big box development joins IKEA in Tuxedo Yards, streets immediately serving the site will be overbuilt. That is a risk to both the developer and the city, which has agreed to pay back $14 million in property tax revenues as development grows. But if the project is the success that is imagined, it also means that the capital investment will occur at no loss of existing revenues to the city. Not a bad thing.

And because the development will occur over at least a decade, it means that traffic loads should grow slowly and create time to expand Waverley and Kenaston in a manageable way. Also not a bad thing.

Troubling is the city’s assertion that the current low expectations for annual commercial construction are suddenly very optimistic, in line with what would justify 1.5 million new square feet at Tuxedo Yards without harming existing commercial enterprise. The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce could usefully analyze that claim for the comfort of its members and citizens generally who do not want to see neighbourhood commerce move and concentrate in south Winnipeg.

Other interest groups could usefully examine issues in which they have expertise. Is the very modest transit service plan sufficient? What does it mean that the development would have no negative environmental consequences? Is there sufficient attention being paid to landscaping and screening or are we about to get another Regent Avenue?

There isn’t much time. What there is could be used effectively if interest groups concentrate on narrow issues of which they have expertise rather than reaching for broad brushes with which to paint unrealistic alternatives.