CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Kingston Building Heights

A provincial growth assessment published in June concluded that Kingston must accommodate thousands more dwellings within the decade. Councillors will vote in November on an amendment to the zoning bylaw permitting buildings of 6 to 12 storeys along transit corridors now restricted to detached houses. The corridors carry the city's most frequent bus routes, and the amendment would apply to properties within 200 metres of a stop. Public submissions closed in September, and the planning department has recommended approval in a report running to several dozen pages.

Erin Delaney, the planner who drafted the amendment, has managed the city's residential intensification file for several years and is direct about the alternatives. "We can build upward along the bus routes, or we can pave the farmland past Westbrook," Delaney said. "There isn't a third option in this file." She points to a comparable rezoning in Guelph that produced thousands of apartments without a corresponding deterioration in traffic.

Gordon Pike, a retired municipal engineer, has lived in Kingscourt for decades and chairs a neighbourhood association that meets monthly at the community centre. "Nobody here disputes that Kingston needs housing. I've said so at three meetings," Pike said. "What I dispute is the scale." The sewer mains beneath his street have not been enlarged in decades, and much of the neighbourhood has signed a petition requesting a capacity study before any approval.

Rachel Boudreau, of the Kingston Housing Affordability Coalition, which assists tenants with applications for rent supplements, wants the additional storeys and a condition attached to them. She is asking councillors to require that 15% of apartments in any new mid-rise be offered below market, an arrangement that operates in several Ontario municipalities. "A tower of luxury rentals is still a tower the people I represent can't afford," Boudreau said. The coalition's written submission was filed in August, and Boudreau addressed the committee in person. The planning department has commissioned the capacity study and referred the affordability condition to a separate review. That review reports in the new year, and the vote on permitted heights proceeds in November.

I rent on one of those corridors and I would be glad of a building I could actually get into. The part of Ms. Boudreau's case that persuaded me is that a tower on its own is 6. Choose…useless to tenantscheaper than a houseagainst policymuch too tall. Mr. Pike is not the obstacle he is made out to be either, since what he has actually asked for is. Mr. Pike is not the obstacle he is made out to be either, since what he has actually asked for is 7. Choose…a lower building heighta study before approvalbylaw rejectionplanner meeting. The department gave him that, which I did not expect. What worries me is the timing, because his study and her condition both land. The department gave him that, which I did not expect. What worries me is the timing, because his study and her condition both land 8. Choose…before the November voteafter the votebefore the same committeewith the assessment. Ms. Delaney is probably right that the alternative is. Ms. Delaney is probably right that the alternative is 9. Choose…more towersfewer homespavementresubmission, and on balance I would rather have the buildings. I would just rather have them, and on balance I would rather have the buildings. I would just rather have them 10. Choose…much closermuch soonerbrick-builtaffordable as well.