Where Vision Meets Value: The Case for Responsible Development

By Jeff Ranson

Development, Done Responsibly

Can we afford to develop responsibly? The real question is can we afford not to? Responsible Development has really been part of the DNA of?YZD since its inception. At Northcrest, Responsible Development means we are committed to thinking ahead with every facet of our building process, knowing the decisions we make today will shape Toronto's future for generations. YZD will weave together city and nature in seven future-focused, sustainable, thoughtfully designed neighbourhoods that prioritize quality of life for both people and the planet. After all, there may be no industry that has a more direct impact on how people live than real estate development. You're literally shaping how people live, where they spend their time, and the kinds of opportunities they have access to. YZD-a place that's been inaccessible to so many, for so long- will become a destination for tens of thousands of people to call home or go to work, creating a new transit-connected urban heart in a part of Toronto currently oriented around cars. A project the size of YZD amplifies our responsibility to build a truly great place across multiple dimensions, for generations to come, but it doesn't have to come at an extra cost.

Rethinking the Cost of Building Better Places

There is a common misconception that Responsible Development equals expensive, but it's not something?Northcrest looks at as an add on cost-it's an investment that creates a more valuable place where people will not only live, but thrive.

• Time is Money: Responsible Development can accelerate timelines because it tends to be more closely aligned with what the community and public sector is looking for, which is key to approvals, while innovations like mass-timber and modular construction speed up the build itself.
• Capture Future Savings: Upfront investments in Responsible Development, especially in high-performance building operations, lead to long-term savings. Innovations in financing can ensure that the developer can meaningfully offset initial costs, while end users still benefit from lower operating costs.
• Leverage Trade-Offs: Strategic investments today can unlock savings and create long-term value for future residents in ways that aren't always obvious. Spending more on high-performance building envelopes improves comfort and noise issues, reducing turnover. Prioritizing placemaking can reduce marketing and leasing expenses by making the development speak for itself. Designing for walkability reduces car demand and associated capital expenses (ie. parking requirements), while increasing disposable income for local residents to support retail. In short, smart trade-offs today mean fewer compromises tomorrow.
• Full Cost Comparisons: When people say it's more expensive to implement Responsible Development, often they're looking at partial costs or backwards to historical prices which may no longer be relevant. We must ensure our baseline considers Is it even still allowed? What is the current industry norm? What are the future costs and risks for things like energy and climate?
• Strategic Planning: Responsible Development can be less expensive up front, less expensive over the lifecycle of a project, a driver for market value and/or a trigger for public benefit, but it takes strategic planning and integrating the objectives into the process as early as possible.

Knowing the enormous weight and importance this site will have for so many, we created the YZD Responsible Development Framework (RDF) to focus our efforts over the life of the development. It's built on five pillars of interconnected themes, that work together to create value for everyone who will live, work and spend time here.

Putting the Pillars to Work?

The five pillars are the culmination of years of work engaging with different stakeholders - from collaborative work with the City, speaking with current?neighbours and future residents, and consulting global experts. This is all in an effort to understand the impact areas that are most materially important for YZD and around which we prioritize our strategic efforts.

1. Climate Readiness: Developing for the future means adapting to today's shifting climate landscape. Mitigation, adaptability, and resilience strategies are key to ensuring YZD's future residents enjoy affordability, comfort, and security.
2. City Nature: Abundant green spaces, functional landscapes working as infrastructure, and diverse urban ecosystems, YZD can be a model for how to blend the urban and natural worlds.
3. Urban Mobility: Cities thrive on access-jobs, entertainment, community, and services. YZD can provide safe and affordable access through connectivity that optimizes space efficiency and community vitality.
4. Inclusive Prosperity: YZD's development is a chance to expand housing, jobs, and services in North Toronto. But true responsible development means ensuring those opportunities reach as many people as possible.
5. Quality of Place: If it doesn't feel great to be there, does anything else matter? By prioritizing experience and design excellence, YZD can be one of Toronto's most iconic places.

Action, Not Accounting

I like to say at this early stage of?YZD, we could be anything, but we can't be everything. Zoning in on the strategic opportunities that unlock the broadest positive impacts is more important than trying to check every box. While many frameworks are focused on measuring impact, the Responsible Development Framework is about more than that. As we think about the development of YZD, the framework helps us evaluate the strategies we choose and prioritize the ones with complimentary benefits across the five pillars.

Some early examples of this approach in action:

• We're already putting the City Nature pillar into action, strengthening the connection between nature and community. We're bringing landscapes into our hardscapes with native plants. We've introduced beehives to the site to produce local honey.
• We're bringing people to YZD for a variety of community social events like Hangar Skate this winter and many activities for the warmer months still ahead-subsidizing costs so everyone can participate.
• We're holding an international design process to reimagine the Runway as a pedestrian-focused public corridor stretching nearly the entire 2km length of the site-creating an urban environment in Toronto unlike any other, where community, culture, and nature meet.
• We've committed to more than 70 acres of new parks and open space will provide a variety of recreational opportunities, reintroducing native habitats, and providing stormwater management functions.
• Aside from parks 5 minutes from your doorstep, you'll be able to walk or bike most of the places you need to go. Already, we're planning for bike infrastructure and have provided bikes, e-bikes and scooters for our team to get around.
• We're kicking off this massive redevelopment with the Hangar District, retrofitting the hangar buildings and celebrating the industrial history of the site. This will also provide significant environmental value through preservation and material reuse, while reinvigorating a major employment hub with new economic activity.

The RDF is a living toolkit that we'll continue to invest in and bring to life. After all, Responsible Development is fundamentally about creating value for everyone who lives here and most importantly, about building a really great place. A place that people want to visit. A place where people want to live. A place that's affordable. One that's deeply accessible and a place that's environmentally conscious.