Rethinking the Impact of New Retail Development in Owen Sound
Opinion: Big-box store development continues to push outward in Owen Sound, hollowing out the core. Is it wise to remove retail impact analysis from our Official Planning process?
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION
Does Owen Sound think that even more big-box development on the eastern edge of town is something that should happen right now? Or should that development wait until the market can absorb an expanded retail sector? Should it be housing instead?
These are not hypothetical questions. They are decisions being made soon with upcoming changes to the Official Plan.
Whether or not Owen Sound City Council should remove its requirement for a retail impact analysis prior to rezoning may seem like an unimportant — or uninteresting — part of our Official Plan Review. I attended a council meeting online to tune in to affordable housing topics, and this came up as an aside; as a line item easily brushed away. Yet this one has me worried.
A discussion about pre-development studies is long overdue. Let’s get rid of bureaucratic nonsense that impedes good development; barriers like those create foolish costs and delays to important projects that help our city grow.
I work in affordable housing development and when meeting with planners, we are always asking them to pare down the list of studies to essentials only — to eliminate ‘stupid studies.’
A ‘stupid study’ is one where developers have to hire a professional at great cost to conduct an analysis that a small group of reasonable people could figure out pretty quickly at a kitchen table.
Affordable housing needs studies, traffic studies, tree retention studies, shadow studies… often these expensive, cumbersome professional studies don’t give any new information that couldn’t be figured out with common sense.
Besides that, developers always seem to procure studies that support their position, regardless of whether they are reasonable.
In the case of retail impact, however, Owen Sound has a real problem on its hands.
I dove into the retail impact studies 15 years ago, when Walmart, Heritage Grove, and Branningham Grove were all trying to expand big-box stores at the same time. They had professional planners conduct retail impact studies that all promised huge growth for the town, each also promising that no harm could come of it.
At the time, we had a struggling but functioning mall, a core commercial area we had vowed to protect, large vacant or underused properties everywhere, and large empty stores on the west side.
The developers’ claims were so egregious that I ended up in grad school to learn more about how planning processes could so easily undermine our town’s potential.
At the core are inflated population projections. Here’s an excerpt from a professional study done way back in April 2000, which predicted a 9.1% growth rate over 10 years. That would have put our population at 24,544 in 2016.
It went through a peer review process that found ‘no significant concerns.’
All retail market impact analyses seem to have the same pattern: overblown population forecasts and rosy market expansion outlooks.
When rezoning was requested to build Heritage Grove, back in 2010, I took the developers to OMB because I saw how they fudged their data to justify retail expansion. Sadly, the judge decided that I lacked the credentials to question such professional thinking and denied me a hearing.
Fast forward to today: our population didn’t grow as those professionals predicted… oops. Now we have a dead mall, and plenty of undeveloped land in the commercial heart of our city.
I’m sure that common-sense folks could surmise that our historic pattern of growth didn’t warrant excess big-box expansion. But the landowners and developers who profit from this model of development are powerful and persuasive.
They don’t care about the vitality of Owen Sound’s existing commercial sector — or anywhere else, for that matter.
They justify the creation of “doughnut” development; fatter and fatter at the edges, a bigger and bigger hole in the middle. Cities are left with vacant stores, dead malls and struggling cores, and the ballooning costs of servicing a larger perimeter.
Sound familiar?
I guess it’s not really the job of developers and land flippers to safeguard an existing community. But it is the job of Council and the planners who work for us.
Now, the issue is before us again. Currently, the requirement for ‘retail impact analysis’ is the only thing standing in the way of rezoning to create even more big-boxes at our eastern edge. Expansion outwards will hollow out what commercial business is still able to survive in our core area, further reducing net prosperity.
Perhaps we should ask our Council and planning staff for common-sense changes.
Let’s put a hold on re-zoning for large-format retail expansion at the edge of town until we need more space for shops. Freeze retail sprawl until our mall is occupied, commercial properties between the fringe and the core are nicely filled in, and our core is bustling with business.
A small group of regular folks with common sense could probably get this sorted.
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I agree heartily with Christy's analysis that is summed up:
"the creation of “doughnut” development; fatter and fatter at the edges, a bigger and bigger hole in the middle. Cities are left with vacant stores, dead malls and struggling cores".
It is sad and deeply troubling that car-centric cities around the world are experiencing the gradual death of their central retail districts. It has been called Walmartization! Let's pray that people, including municipal councils, will awaken to the fact that minor changes like free downtown parking, while worthy, will not, in themselves, halt the death of our inner cities. Here's a bit of 'common sense' that Christy advocates: 1. Let's substantially increase taxes on the large-scale retail properties on the outskirts of Owen Sound. Make them pay for killing our downtown! (And, to be honest, convenience leads me, as a car owner, to patronize many of these establishments.) 2. At the same time, decrease taxes on small properties and retail stores in the core of our city; thus making downtown development more viable. 3. Increase funding massively for low-cost housing, and shelters for the unhoused, who are often fighting addictions and mental health crises, so seniors and others will feel safe enough to make our downtown a happy destination. Let's acknowledge that the core of our city is gasping for air, about to succumb. Half measures, inadequately funded, will not breathe life into the downtown.
Really insightful piece by someone who has done her homework and clearly outlines important considerations. I agree that Heritage Place is not what it once was, but I see encouraging signs that it's not dead. In addition to established stores like Leon's and Chapters, innovative people have seen the opportunities there. Joanna Aplin Fine Art combines gallery and work space, the expanded Upwards Art location is buzzing (yes we miss them downtown), and Olga's Cafe with a growing following of people who have discovered her amazing food are newer retail examples. Service Canada, Home & Community Support Services of Grey Bruce and Georgian Tailoring located there draw others to the mall. Thank you Christy for your informed and thought provoking letter that I hope council will consider in their decision making processes.