HDC Hyundai Development raided in connection with Gwangju apartment building collapse

Rescuers comb through debris last Thursday, looking for workers who went missing in a deadly apartment construction accident in the southern city of Gwangju. (Yonhap)

Officials from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the National Police Agency conducted a joint raid of the real estate developer's headquarters in central Seoul to search for evidence in connection with the accident that occurred on Jan. 11.

Search operations have continued for a week after the facade on a 39-story apartment building under construction crumbled to the ground in Gwangju, about 330 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

Five construction workers remain unaccounted for, with one worker found dead under the rubble Friday.

On Monday, Chung Mong-gyu, chairman of HDC Hyundai Development, offered to step down to take responsibility for the accident. Chung said he will consider terminating the contracts for the buyers, and completely demolishing and reconstructing the apartment buildings from the start if the safety inspection finds there was a problem. (Yonhap)

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HDC Hyundai Development raided in connection with Gwangju apartment building collapse - The Korea Herald

(Update: Adding video, comment from city officials)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- With developable land in short supply in Bend, more and more multifamily housing are being built in the city.

The citys chief operations officer, Russell Grayson, said Monday some policy changes were made over the past few years to help make the big shift happen.

Now, the city is seeing more multifamily housing then it ever thought they were going to see.

Bend Chief Operations Officer Russell Grayson told NewsChannel 21 on Monday there were 650 units in construction right now.

Thats compared to just 62 units completed in the past six months. The city has determined a reason for the shift in building habits.

"With single-family housing units, houses becoming so expensive in town, we realized we need different types of housing units on the ground, Grayson said.

He said the goal was to make it closer to a 60-40 split between multifamily and single-family construction.

Were seeing a lot more apartment-type buildings, but weve also had some recent policy changes and code changes to allow more duplexes, triplexes andfourplexes, tied to a change in state law that requires allowing multifamily housing in formerly exclusive single-family zoning, Grayson said.

Lynne McConnell, the citys housing director, said the policy changes are partially a result of state pressure.

We have to look at how todensifywithin city limits before we can look at expanding our urban growth boundary, McConnell said.

And the other reason is the citys growth

"Our growth is pretty exceptional, McConnell said.

And if Bend keeps growing like it is now, you might expect to see more apartments,townhomesand duplexes coming to a block near you.

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Bend's big shift from single-family homes to more multifamily housing tops city's expectations - KTVZ

New Construction Is Not Always the Answer

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

California, as with most American states, has a housing crisis.Unlike the rest of the country, it is actually working to ameliorate the situation, with private and public initiatives that critics cant help but label inadequate. The Bay Area made accessory dwelling units legal by changing zoning laws, but that has hardly made a dent. Some cities are now pushing for additional upzoning to give developers more room to bring new buildings to market at lower rents. There are all sorts of studies, university sponsored or underwritten by the industry, that recommend more-or-less radical fixes for a seemingly unfixable problem. Environmentalists are naturally cast as villains because they dont condone greenfield developments. And Californians are tough on their elected officials, as the current governor learned last year.

Amidst the fracas, UCLA planner M. Nolan Gray offered a recent essay in The Atlantic that settles the issue of whether or not to bring adaptive reuse to bear on the Wests biggest challengeapart from global warming, earthquakes, forest fires, mudslides, floods, and the rest of the regions plagues. As he writes: In housing circles, one hears a lot of self-righteous discussion about the need for more preservation. And many American homes doubtless deserve to stick around. But the truth is that we fetishize old homes. Whatever your aesthetic preferences, new construction is better on nearly every conceivable measure, and if we want to ensure universal access to decent housing, we should be building a lot more of it.

So, for Westerners who live in makeshift bungalows, trailer parks, trashy 50s dingbats, and the odd crumbling concrete high-rise, it pays to build new and forget the Victorian painted ladies that made San Francisco a gay haven in the 70s. San Francisco, the author argues, has more decrepit old houses than New Orleans or Charleston, South Carolina, because city fathers caved into historic preservationists back then, while they were also going easy on homeless junkies. Though I doubt he knows much about these two cities and their historic place in pioneering zoning and preservation law in the U.S., Mr. Gray feels sure that they got rid of extraneous housing stock without the nostalgia he sees affecting things in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where they fetishize old homes. New construction is better on nearly every conceivable measure than reusing old buildings, whatever their age and condition.

As one who has spent his career restoring and adding to historic houses, as well as researching domestic architecture, and who co-authored a book with Gordon Bock on the subject, I beg to differ. I am also surprised that The Atlantic published such a short essay on this complex and important subject. If one is going to argue so vehemently, one ought to do so in detail and have the facts straight; but Gray sees everything in black and white and uses facts sparingly.

When discussing the 20th century, one should also be aware that preWorld War II construction, despite its asbestos and lead paint, was among the most durable and well-engineered the world has seen.

It first pays to distinguish between the Eastern Seaboard and Southwestwhere European colonists began building in the 16th century and left a considerable footprint on todays cities and townsand the Far West and Midwest, where building stock is younger by a century or more. When discussing the 20th century, one should also be aware that preWorld War II construction, despite its asbestos and lead paint, was among the most durable and well-engineered the world has seenthis according to many experts, including Henry Petroski of Duke University.

Fire safety is a red herring here. Developer McMansions from the past four decades are riddled with toxic substances, including flammable vinyl siding, and are apt to fall apart within a few decades due to poor construction. Though house fires can level a balloon-frame dwelling in minutes, very few were actually constructed in the U.S. before platform framing became the norm. Prewar apartment buildings in New York City have the highest value among all housing types and are the safest buildings once a few upgrades are made to sprinklers and building systems. The residents of Londons 1967 Grenfell Tower hardly felt safe when a fire began on the fourth floor in 2017 and spread up the exterior of the building, consuming a 2012 upgrade to the facade cladding. Unlike prewar buildings, it had only one central fire stair, since the brutalist structure was thought unlikely to need a second. So much of Californias housing stock is postWorld War II that it does not make sense to claim it will resist fires or perform better thermally than East Coast buildings from before that time. Chicago, which endured the most destructive American fire prior to San Franciscos, has an excellent fabric of brick, steel-frame, concrete, and wood-frame buildings that have never presented a major hazard. Miami Beach, on the other hand, allowed developers to build with nary a code restriction, resulting in apartment buildings that are now at risk of falling down due to poor design and aging, ill-maintained structures. (It looks as though San Franciscos high-tech Salesforce Tower may go that way in a few years time.)

When costs are figured, it is essential to look not only at first costs in construction, as well as energy consumed, but also embodied energy and lifecycle cost projections. True, today it is still more expensive to renovate most historic buildings (especially smaller ones) than to build new, but only when ignoring data about the buildings original materials and its performance over a long period. Building anew creates more waste than any other human endeavor, so reusing any existing construction will reduce this contribution to landfills. It is also easier to design ADA accommodations, elevators, and super-insulating walls into new buildings. Better design standards, even in newer LEED documents, are making it easier to bring these improvements into old buildings. As government begins to address the infrastructure crisis, the market will soon reflect lower costs in renovation and reuse.

Sound attenuation is certainly a factor when people live in high-rises, or close to neighbors in a dense neighborhood. But city life is inherently noisy, and one can move to less-crowded environs if commuting is not an issue (which it usually is in California). Much prewar construction, with plaster partition walls, performs almost as well as highly-insulated gypsum board wall assemblies. Moreover, only luxury buildings commonly feature such sound insulation in all party walls, so one is not likely to find peace and quiet without shelling out extra cash.

Are new apartment buildings generally more pleasant, comfortable, and beautiful than old ones? Again, we can look at different regions and find varied opinions. In new towns out West, where there are fewer historic neighborhoods, it is likely the natives are used to well-landscaped and amenity-rich condominium complexes or gated communities that were built within the last few decades. Each entry into the market comes with extravagant claims, many now coded with green terminology, that will draw the most discerning buyers. As many who readCommon Edgewill know, cutting-edge design doesnt always please the best-educated citizens of our divided nation.

In places with rich history and varied ethnic populations, there is substantial research suggesting that traditional urbanism and architecture attract high-income buyers and please virtually all homeowners, while new construction almost always falls short. The Congress for the New Urbanism publishes such research regularly, and several West Coast planners such as Peter Calthorpe, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Elizabeth Moule have designed successful communities based on CNU studies. In most cases, the new neighborhoods are inspired directly by old ones. Charlestons Battery and Queenss Forest Hills Gardens are still coveted places in which to raise a family, retire, or simply live the good life. Historic districts in Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, and Leadville are beloved places beyond the borders of California, New Mexico, and Colorado. Where would these states be without tourism?

Is it responsible to argue that by every reasonable measure new construction beats old construction? Apparently, Mr. Gray did not useevery conceivablemeasure when making his case, so I cant say I am convinced he is correct. I hope that critical readers ofThe Atlanticwill make their own judgments based on wider evidence than he presented.

This does not mean that the U.S. wont need 700,000 units of housing every year to fill its huge housing gap over a 10-year period. It simply means that those in the building, planning, and design professions should look to all appropriate solutions when addressing the crisis. In many areas new construction will be the only logical alternative, but when choosing dwellings, one size has never fit all inhabitants. In most urban areas there are redundant office buildings, warehouses, churches, and schools that citizens want to save if new uses can be found for them. With tax credits like those in the 1983 federal legislation prior to its Reagan-era amendments, and a robust infrastructure spending program, these buildings will be attractive for developers. Builders will make money on reuse and wont need to build new housing in neighborhoods that people love to live in. It makes no sense to argue for urban renewaldestruction of old fabric for the sake of redevelopmentwhen so many excellent buildings stand empty in virtually every American city (yes, Mr. Gray, even Los Angeles).

If a building is clearly old, deteriorated beyond repair, and of little aesthetic merit, remove it. But dont do the typical American thing and condemn it simply because it isnt bright and shiny and new. There are adobes in New Mexico that have stood for four centuries, and which still provide comfortable and attractive accommodations, though the plumbing has been replaced a few times over the years. In a dry, mountain climate, these buildings outperform the best Net Zero houses, and they are planted like cacti in specific locales. People identify with them, treasure them, and take care to see that they remain in good use and repair. As Stewart Brand reminds us, most old buildings learn and adapt to changing circumstancesnothing good will come of destroying them.

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New Construction Is Not Always the Answer - ArchDaily

Thomas Walter, president, Applied Hospitality in front of the Del Mar Estates at 611 Northeast 29th Drive in Wilton Manors (Applied Hospitality, LoopNet)

A Massachusetts boutique hotelier joined South Floridas multifamily buying frenzy by purchasing a small apartment building in Broward County for $7.8 million.

Boston-based Boutique Hospitality bought the four-story, 15-unit Del Mar Estates at 611 Northeast 29th Drive in Wilton Manors, according to records. Boutique Hospitalitys president is Thomas Walter, who is also president of Applied Hospitality, a company that developed and currently manages a handful of boutique hotel properties in Provincetown, Massachusetts, according to the firms website.

For its Wilton Manors acquisition, Boutique Hospitality paid $520,000 per apartment.

The seller, an affiliate of New York-based Tona Construction and Management, paid $1.2 million for the property in 2014, records show. Tona, led by CEO Domenick Tonnacio, completed the 21,095-square-foot building in 2020.

Del Mar Estates has one-bedroom units ranging from 550 square feet and 880 square feet, and 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom apartments, according to an online listing. Monthly rents start at $1,650, according to Apartments.com.

Each apartment has an open kitchen design, modern flooring, a washer and a dryer and walk-in closets. The buildings amenities include an atrium courtyard with a koi pond and tropical landscaping, a private gym, a pool with a pavilion and a boat dock.

Just about every type of multifamily property in South Florida is attracting investors looking to cash in on the regions high demand for rentals. Global investment powerhouse Blackstone led the frenzy this month by purchasing more than a dozen affordable housing apartment communities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties from Hollywood-based The Cornerstone Group for more than $300 million.

In a deal closer to the Del Mar price range, New York broker Moshe Majeski paid $8.2 million for a 26-unit multifamily portfolio in Bay Harbor Islands in Miami-Dade.

In a deal aimed at capitalizing on student housing, Mankato, Minnesota-based Tailwind Group bought a 15-story, 149-unit apartment building near Florida International Universitys main campus for $46 million.

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Boston-based boutique hotelier buys Wilton Manors apartment building for $8M - The Real Deal

MIAMI (CBSMiami) Nearly 6,000 new apartments and more than 2,500 condos are under construction in the city of Miami. And a new, luxury, mixed-use building is expected to break ground this summer.

The 70-story skyscraper called Okan Tower will sit on North Miami Avenue near NW 6 Street.

Its not the only new addition to Miamis skyline though. Within the next couple years, the skyline will include 14 additional skyscrapers.

Mayor Francis Suarez says the city is growing faster than ever.

From Wynwood to Brickell and downtown to Miami Beach, cranes and construction are everywhere.

Everybody wants to be here, were an extremely desirable city which is a great thing. We dont want to be less desirable but its also creating a bit of a supply glut, raising prices a little bit because a lot of people want to come, says the Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez.

Since the pandemic began, people from all over the country have been relocation to Miami, businesses included. Theres just one major problem, real estate prices are soaring to new levels.

Mayor Suarez is doing an incredible job attracting new businesses and industries to Miami but we have to have the ability to house those professionals that are coming to work here, says Edgardo Defortuna, president of Fortune International Group.

According to the Miami Association of Realtors, the median sales price for houses jumped another 15% just last month. In the new Okan Tower, studio apartments are starting at $387,000.

Its a challenge that both the public and private sector need to tackle to provide affordable housing for the workforce, says Defortuna.

At a panel discussion with developers Monday day, Mayor Suarez says its a supply and demand issue. He says right now, there is tremendous demand and not enough supply. Thats why the city of Miami is taking on so many new projects. More than 8,000 condo units and apartments are expected to be complete within the next couple of years.

Its important that Miami continue to grow because thats what will keep real estate prices down, says Suarez.

While real estate prices are at an all-time high right now, Suarez hopes in time theyll even out. He points out, revitalization and growth will help prevent taxes from increasing.

Were starting to see thousands and thousands of units that are going to be constructed which will keep our prices relatively low compared to other major cities in America, says Suarez.

Okan Tower is expected to break ground in June.

According to the Downtown Development Authority, the wave of new companies and people moving to south Florida is having an unmistakable impact on the real estate market with apartment occupancies at 95% even as rents continue to rise.

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Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Says City Is Growing Faster Than Ever At Panel Discussion With Developers - CBS Miami

The real estate market is still hotand in the Northern Virginia area, that means borderline insane. Existing homes are still going very quickly, and new construction has also been affected by delays in permitting and inspections, backlogged supply chains, labor shortages, and increases in the cost of building materials.

While sales pace is expected to be slower in 2022, impacted by inventory growth for some locations/home types, rising rates predicted for Q2 and buyers being shut out by record prices, we believe the market will remain strong, said Compass agent Susan Isaacs. But there is some good news for buyers: spring will still see low interest rates, and Fannie Mae increased the 2022 loan limit in the region to $980,700, allowing down payments as low as 5 percent for homes priced up to $1,020,000. While this doesnt offset payment shock associated with higher rates, it does open the door to buyers who were being held back in that price range by the need for a higher down payment.

But some typical go-to areas of Northern Virginia are also getting too competitive, so homebuyers may need to start looking elsewhere.

McLean, a town where just about everyone would like to live for the schools, is getting a bit crowded, says Keller Williams agent Nicole Jamil. There is too much competition there and its very low on inventory. But if buyers are flexible, there is more land in other areas that are very close to McLean, like Falls Church or Pimmit Hills, which is zoned for part of Falls Church.

With everyone vying for a new home in NoVA, here are some of the top up-and-coming neighborhoods on the market.

The neighborhood is made up of Crystal City, Pentagon City, and parts of Arlington, but its also pushing growth and demand in the adjacent neighborhoods like Ballston, Clarendon, and Rosslyn. National Landing is still hot for its access to all things Amazon and Arlington, proximity to DC, transportation options, and new construction condo and apartment pipeline. This neighborhood has convenience and investment value, and due to the pre-pandemic progress made by JBG Smith for National Landing, a good number of residential new construction projects are already in the works and progressing toward completion.

An upscale urbanburb with character, it features single family homes in a variety of architectural styles (mostly late 1800s through the 1950s). Popular parks and great schools abound, and the neighborhood shares amenities with nearby Clarendon. Its also a very easy commute to DC.

According to Jamil, Pimmit Hills is picking up, especially for builders looking for land to develop into homes. Anderson Road is particularly attractive to builders right now, and new construction homes are starting to pick up, she said. With proximity to parks, libraries, great schools, and shopping in Tysons, its a central suburb thats attracting more and more homebuyers.

With offices for Google, Salesforce, and Docusign, Reston has become a big tech hub. Buyers will experience competition in the area, but depending on the housing type, its not as competitive as other Northern Virginia areas, so you may be able to get a teeny bit more for your money.

Del Ray is always popular because of its community culture, eclectic mix of architectural styles, artsy downtown, popular Saturday farmers market, and proximity to Potomac Yard, Isaacs said. It also offers a reasonable commute to DC and is less than 15 minutes by bike to Old Town. Its a suburb that doesnt feel so suburban, thanks to its proximity to DC, the walkable, cobblestreet neighborhood of Old Town, and its amenities and decently sized townhomes and single-family homes.

This neighborhood is about three miles from DC, less than two from the Pentagon, and adjacent to the Fort Myer Army Base with a lot to offer. Housing is a blend of single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes, condos, and apartment buildings of various sizes. Plus, its more affordable than other comparable locations. We especially like the value proposition for townhomes/rowhomes in this neighborhood, both as owner-occupied residences that mature into investment properties, and investment properties, Isaacs said.

Buyers like the Mosaic District and recently The Boro area (see below) because of the shops and restaurants. Not to mention all of the new apartments, condos, and hotels that are coming up by the metro in Tysons.

Even buildings in the area that are older, like Rotunda, which was built in the 1980s, are getting popular because of great amenities that are all walkable or a short drive away, Jamil said. Whole Foods is the center amenity in The Boro, along with several shops, restaurants, and big box stores, like the nearby Walmart and HomeGoods.

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These Will Be the Hottest Up-and-Coming NoVA Neighborhoods in 2022 - northernvirginiamag.com

A Downtown DeLand apartment project came one step closer to being built when DeLands Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency narrowly approved a hefty incentive package for the developer.

The incentive was almost denied, but City Attorney Darren Elkind saved the day, calling for a two-minute recess, which he used to negotiate a compromise with Atlantic Housing Partners, who ultimately received a tax break that could be worth $3.5 million.

The developer wants to build 178 units of housing 173 single family apartments and five town homes and a minimum of 5,000 square feet of retail space on a Downtown plot of land that includes the former Save-A-Lot grocery store at 221 S. Woodland Blvd.

The project would not be possible without a 90-percent rebate of taxes that will be due on the propertys increased value, once its developed, Scott Culp of Atlantic Housing said at a Downtown DeLand CRA meeting Jan. 18.

The goal of the project is to offer attainable workforce housing, he said, and to do that, they need the tax break.

Were basing it on workforce rents; quality development that will bring people, a workforce, Downtown, Culp said. With this incentive, we have the ability to make this work with our own resources. I cant say the same without it.

DeLand has been trying for 30 years to get more housing Downtown, to provide merchants with a built-in market of shoppers and diners.

One of the stumbling blocks that has kept apartments from being built, city officials said and Culp agreed, is that there is no existing project to prove that Downtown housing will be a financial success.

Another reason his company needs the tax break, Culp said, is rising construction prices that make the true cost of the project unknown. Atlantic Housing expects to spend about $40 million to build the apartments.

The tax breaks will last until 2036, or until the benefits outpace a cap of $3.5 million.

With the incentive package, the CRA fund will reap new revenue totaling around $22,000 annually. If Atlantic Housing were to build the project without the tax break, the CRA fund would reap about $200,000 a year over the next 14 years.

But building Downtown apartments with a goal of maintaining workforce rental costs is a gamble. Some on the CRA, including Mayor Bob Apgar, feared if the city doesnt provide incentives to lessen the risks of the first apartment project, the citys goal of more housing Downtown may never materialize.

For the long-term economic viability of Downtown, having heads in beds and feet on the street is, to me, a big part of the equation for the long-term success of Downtown, Apgar said, later adding, If we dont move forward with a project like this with the incentives at this time, Im not sure when well ever see residential living in our Downtown.

Not all of the commissioners were so keen.

Commissioner Charles Paiva feared it would be difficult to measure how successful the project was, something he said was important if the project was receiving a tax incentive. Commissioners Jessica Davis and Chris Cloudman were concerned about the affordability of the rental units.

Culp said Atlantic Housing is aiming to serve the missing middle market of people whose household income is between $32,000 and $91,000, but no specific language in the tax-break agreement specifies this. Thats because earmarking a housing project as affordable housing can add federal hoops to jump through, and those add additional costs Culp did not want to incur if Atlantic Housing could avoid it.

One DeLand resident, Frank Schnidman, took issue with the tax break. Schnidman, a DeLand resident of two years and the former chair at Florida Atlantic Universitys School of Urban and Regional Planning, said the incentives should be handed over only if they were really necessary. Schnidman said the city probably cant afford to deprive the CRA budget of so much needed money.

Before you give a percentage number, think about the other demands that you have on your Downtown to improve the quality of life and to provide an atmosphere where incentives may, in fact, not be needed from the perspective of the alleviation of slum and blight, because the market is there, he said.

While in favor of the project, Schnidman also raised concerns about other factors, including the lack of specific language related to affordability.

When the CRA composed of the five-member DeLand City Commission and two representatives from the Downtown DeLand business community voted on a motion by Commissioner Kevin Reid to grant the incentives, it failed 3-3. CRA Commissioner Ella Ran was absent.

For some of the dissenting commissioners, concerns over the lack of a definitive end date for the tax break overshadowed a desire for Downtown apartments. As originally proposed, the benefits could continue annually if DeLands CRA was extended after its 2036 expiration date.

Mayor Apgar and Commissioners Reid and Bill Budzinski voted in favor, while Commissioners Davis, Cloudman and Paiva dissented.

After Apgar announced that Reids motion to approve the incentives had failed, City Attorney Elkind asked for a two-minute recess to negotiate with the developer. Elkind returned with an agreement from Culp to end the benefits definitively in 2036, or earlier if the $3.5 million cap on incentives is reached.

Paivas motion based on those new terms passed on a 5-1 vote, with only Cloudman opposed. Cloudman still wanted a way to hold the developer to his promise of workforce, rather than luxury, rents.

With approval of the proposed tax incentive by the CRA, which was also endorsed later in the evening by the DeLand City Commission, Atlantic Housing Partners plans to move ahead on building apartments and retail space at DeLand Commons.

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Downtown DeLand CRA throws big incentive to apartment developer - The West Volusia Beacon

The task force askedto findways to make Ontario housingmore affordable wants to do away with rules that entrench single-family homes as the main option in manyresidential neighbourhoods, according to a draft report.

The nine-member Housing Affordability Task Force, chaired by Scotiabank CEO Jake Lawrence, wants to "create a more permissive land use, planning, and approvals systems" and throw out rules that stifle change or growth including ones that protect the "character" of neighbourhoods across the province.

The wide-ranging 31-page draft report, which is making the rounds in municipal planning circles and could look muchdifferentwhen it's officially released Jan. 31, makes 58 recommendations.

It includes discussions on speeding up approval processes, waiving development charges for infill projects, allowing vacant commercial property owners to transition to residential units,and letting urban boundariesexpand "efficiently and effectively."

It also calls for all municipalities and building code regulations not to make it just easier for homeowners to add secondary suites, garden homes, and laneway houses to their properties, but also to increase height, size and density along "all majorand minor arterials and transit corridors" in the form of condo and apartment towers.

But perhaps the most controversial recommendationis the one to virtually do away with so-called exclusionary zoning, which allows only a single-family detached home to be built on a property.

Instead, the task force recommends that in municipalities with a population of more than 100,000, the province should "allow any type of residential housing up to four storeys and four units on a single residential lot," subject to urban design guidance that'syet to be defined.

According to the report, Ontario lags behind many other G7 countries when it comes to the number of dwellings per capita. And housing advocates have long argued that more modest-projects duplexes, triplexes, tiny homes and townhouses are needed in established neighbourhoods, especially if the environmental and infrastructure costs of sprawl are to be avoided.

But neighbourhood infill and intensification is often a hard political sell.

"While everyone might agree that we have a housing crisis, that we have a climate emergency, nobody wants to see their neighbourhoods change," said Coun. Glen Gower, who co-chairs Ottawa's planning committee. "So that's really the challenge that we're dealing with in Ottawa and in Ontario."

After last week's housing summit with Ontario's big city mayors, reporters repeatedly asked Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark if he supported doing away with zoning for single-detached homes, as other jurisdictions like Edmonton and major New Zealand cities have done.

Clark said he'd heard the idea but did not give a direct answer one way or the other.

Many of the recommendations revolve around making it easierand fasterfor builders to construct homes.

According to the draft report, not only would a streamlined process allow dwellings to get on the market faster, but reducing approval times would also save developers money which, in theory, could be passed onto residents.

The report cites an Ontario Association of Architectsstudy from 2018 showing thatcosts for a 100-unit condo building increase by $193,000 for every month the project is delayed.

That's why, for example, the task force is recommending that any "underutilized or redundant commercial properties" be allowed to be converted to residential units without municipal approvals.

The draft report also calls for quasi-automatic approval for projects up to 10 units that conform to existing official plans and zoning, and goes so far to recommend that municipalities "disallow public consultations" for these applications.

The report speaks to reducing what the task force characterizes as"NIMBY" factors in planning decisions, recommending the province set Ontario-wide standards for specifics like setbacks, shadow rules and front doors, while excluding details like exterior colour and building materials from the approval process.

The task force would even eliminate minimum parking requirements for new projects.

The report touches on a number of subjects it believes unnecessarily delay the building of new homes, including how plans approved by city councils can be appealed.

It recommends the province restore the right of developers to appeal official plans a power that was removed by the previous Liberal government.

And in an effort to eliminate what it calls "nuisance" appeals, the task forcerecommends that the fee a third party such as a community group pays to appealprojects to the Ontario Land Tribunal should be increased from the current $400 to$10,000.

That doesn't sit well with NDP MPP Jessica Bell, the party's housing critic.

"My initial take is that any attempt to make the landtribunal even more difficult for residents to access is concerning," said Bell, adding theNDP is askingstakeholders and community members for feedback.

The tribunal can overturn a municipal council's "democratically decided law," she said, "and I would be pretty concerned if it costs $10,000 for a third party to go to the land tribunal and bring up some valid evidence."

While she was pleased to see the task force address zoning reform to encourage the construction of townhomes, duplexes and triplexes in existing neighbourhoods the so-called "missing middle" between single-family homes and condo towers Bell said increasing supply is not enough to improve housing for all Ontarians.

"We need government investment in affordable housing," she said.

"We need better protections for renters, and we need measures to clamp down on speculation in the housing market We need a more holistic and comprehensive approach than what we are seeing in this draft report right now."

(While the task force was directed by the province to focus on increasing the housing supply through private builders, it acknowledges in the report that "Ontario's affordable housing shortfall was raised in almost every conversation"with stakeholders.)

From his first reading of the report,Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreineragreed with thezoning recommendationsbut said streamlined processes need to be balanced with maintaining public consultations and heritage designations.

"One of my concerns with my very quick read of the draft report is that it talks about expanding urban boundaries and I'm opposed to that," he told CBC.

"We simply can't keep paving over the farmland that feeds us, the wetlands that clean our drinking water [and] protect us from flooding, especially when we already have about 88,000 acres within existing urban boundaries in southern Ontario available for development," he said.

Schreinersaid he's also "deeply concerned" that the report discussesaligning housing development with the province's plan for Highway 413in the GTA.

"I simply don't think we can spend over $10 billion to build a highway that will supercharge climate pollution, supercharge sprawl, making life less affordable for people and paving over 2,000 acres of farmland, 400 acres of the Greenbelt and crossing over 85 waterways," he said.

According to the draft, the task force consulted with builders, planners, architects, realtors, labour unions, social justice advocates, municipal politicians, academics, researchers and planners.

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Why a 4-storey apartment could be coming to a residential street near you - CBC.ca

It was 2016, and Abraham Rodriguez received a text message that made him light up. It was from his friend Nik Pappaconstantine, who had just picked up a new toy: a sleek, speedy dirt bike perfect for back road riding in Lewiston, the small city in Maine where they lived.

Mr. Rodriguez had just turned 50, and had arrived in Lewiston a year or so before with nothing. He met Mr. Pappaconstantine, who worked at a local bank, when he came in to set up his first-ever bank account, and the two men grew close. They bonded over a shared love of cars and adventure sports, and when Mr. Rodriguez saw the text he bolted over to try out the new bike.

They carted the motorcycle to the woods, and Mr. Rodriguez hopped on. He revved the engine, popped a wheelie and rode it for a quarter mile. Then he turned, popped another, and rode it back, slipping through the empty, wooded field like a professional street rider.

Mr. Pappaconstantine was stunned. But Mr. Rodriguez laughed it off: I used to ride bikes back in the day, his friend recalled him saying.

At the time, Mr. Pappaconstantine brushed off the remark. It would be years before he learned that Abraham Rodriguez was not the mans name; his friend with the trick skills was actually Alberto (Alpo) Martinez, one of New York Citys most notorious cocaine dealers of the 1980s.

Five years after he tore through that Maine field on a dirt bike, Mr. Martinezs wild ride ended on Halloween in Harlem, when he was shot and killed through the window of a lifted pickup that he drove into the city from Maine.

The end was as dramatic as the rest of Mr. Martinezs life. As a young man in Harlem, Mr. Martinez rocketed to infamy as one of the flashiest, most successful cocaine dealers during the height of the drugs popularity. His fall, though, was swift: He murdered one of his best friends, expanded his business to Washington, D.C., and by 1991 was arrested and charged in a sweeping drug trafficking case. He would later inform on scores of associates as a federal witness.

Now, as the police investigate his murder, they say they are running into an unusual problem: An awful lot of people wanted to see Alpo Martinez dead.

No shortage of suspects, said one senior law enforcement official at the time of the killing. Part of the difficulty may be too many suspects with too many motives.

In the aftermath of Mr. Martinezs death, friends and neighbors who knew him in Lewiston have clammed up, unsure how to feel about the man they knew as a kind, affable friend.

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He was the nicest neighbor, said Marissa Ritchey, who was smoking a cigarette in an icy parking lot Saturday, and throwing a ball for her dog. He was always polite, nice with the dog.

You never would have thought anything, she said. He was one of the decent ones. Hed help the old people take their trash out.

In Lewiston, Mr. Martinezs killing was a bizarre, dark blip in a former mill town of about 36,000 people nestled between Portland and Augusta on the Androscoggin River.

There certainly was some buzz around town, the Lewiston mayor, Carl Sheline, said of Mr. Martinezs death. A convicted murderer from New York City, he said, was not your average neighbor in town.

Who would have thought that? said a neighbor, Harold Hanlon, who had a friendly relationship with the man he knew as Abraham. I was just as shocked as the next person when my neighbor goes, Hey, Abraham got killed. What?

Even in death, a coherent picture of Mr. Martinezs double life which was once the subject of a Hollywood movie proves elusive. He was both a loyal confidant and one of the most infamous turncoats in New York lore. He was a kind friend and an admitted, ruthless killer; a selfless neighbor and a man so loathed in Harlem that former friends popped champagne in the streets to celebrate his violent end.

He died almost like a comic book villain, said Kevin Chiles, a reformed cocaine dealer and former friend of Mr. Martinezs from Harlem. He antagonized fate.

The path that led Mr. Martinez from New York to Lewiston and then back to his death in the neighborhood where he made his name began more than 30 years ago. Nicknamed The Mayor of Harlem, Mr. Martinez rose to fame as a kingpin of the crack cocaine era, known for luxury cars and loud street bikes ripping wheelies down entire city blocks.

He was an attention seeker and an adrenaline junkie, Mr. Chiles said. You have to figure, we were all young adults, teenagers, and we had more money than we knew what to do with.

But even in an illicit business, Mr. Martinezs ruthlessness stood out. In 1990, he orchestrated the killing of a close friend and fellow dealer, Rich Porter.

The killing was the beginning of the end of Mr. Martinezs reign. He was arrested less than a year later after attempting to expand his cocaine empire to Washington, D.C. Facing drug-trafficking charges, Mr. Martinez one of Harlems hardest players agreed to become a federal witness, and pleaded guilty to contracting seven murders. His testimony would decimate the Washington, D.C., metro areas cocaine infrastructure.

Hes killed people for less than what he ultimately turned out to be and do, Mr. Chiles said.

The betrayal would later be set to film in the movie Paid in Full, which followed fictionalized versions of Mr. Martinez, Mr. Porter and another kingpin through Mr. Porters killing.

Mr. Martinezs real-life arrangement earned him a mitigated sentence, and a place in the federal witness protection program. The program, which officials routinely note has a 100 percent success rate of keeping witnesses safe when they adhere to its rules, requires participants to completely leave behind their old life, identity and contacts.

Released on parole in 2015 with a new name Abraham Rodriguez Mr. Martinez started over in Lewiston, the kind of place where people mind their own business and dont tend to pry, said Shawn Gummo, an owner of a local construction company.

Shielded by the program, Mr. Martinez flourished. He got his commercial drivers license and started working for Walmart, and played basketball with teenagers in the area. With the help of Mr. Pappaconstantine, he set up in an apartment, and was a well-liked neighbor.

By 2017, Mr. Martinez had started his own construction business, founding his own L.L.C. and working in construction cleanup. He often worked south of Lewiston, said Mr. Gummo, who said some members of his crews knew Mr. Martinez while he was living under his assumed identity.

Mr. Hanlon, who lived next door to the six-unit apartment building on College Street where Mr. Martinez stayed, said he never suspected anything.

Both of us owned Dodge trucks, so wed give each other rides to the dealership for repairs, and stuff like that, Mr. Hanlon said. It was a cordial relationship. He just came in and out, he didnt hang around here too much. He was a nice enough fellow.

Still, Mr. Martinezs old life and legacy beckoned. Almost as soon as he got out of prison, Mr. Martinez reached out to Mr. Chiles through a mutual friend. He said he wanted to explain himself, and what had happened in 1991. Soon, he was regularly returning to Harlem.

There were these sightings, almost like Bigfoot, Mr. Chiles said. People would say that theyd seen him.

Mr. Martinezs trips to Harlem would have almost certainly been a violation of his witness protection arrangement. (The U.S. Marshals, who operate the witness protection program, did not comment for this story.) Those who knew him in his post-incarcerated life said he seemed to have been kicked out of the program around the same time that he started returning to the city.

He apparently had somehow messed up the conditions of witness protection back in 2018, Mr. Pappaconstantine said. He would ride down to New York with somebody else. He was always worried about the government watching.

Around the same time, Mr. Martinez also appeared to capitalize off his notoriety in a YouTube clip from 2019, Mr. Martinez takes the film director Troy Reed to the corner where he says he killed Mr. Porter.

It happened right here. At this light, Mr. Martinez says in the video clip, leaning his head against the car window. I grabbed the gun from my little man and put one in his head.

By 2020, Abraham Rodriguez had largely disappeared from Maine. Alpo Martinez was once again a fixture in Harlem.

What ultimately got Mr. Martinez killed in the early hours of Halloween remains a mystery. Some say the killing was a belated meting of long-sought street justice for testifying against so many former associates. Others posit that Mr. Martinez was killed over a girl, or simply found trouble the same way he always had: He was cocky and ambitious, and angered the wrong people.

A senior law enforcement official said investigators now believe Mr. Martinez likely was back in the drug trade in Harlem. When the police discovered him dead in his truck last year, a trail of heroin packets led from his open window down the street, the official said as if he had tossed the drugs out of the car in a panic.

For those like Mr. Pappaconstantine, who only learned the true identity of Mr. Martinez just before his death, his demise feels complicated.

I want to sit here and say I know that he was fully genuine all the time, Mr. Pappaconstantine said, struggling to articulate his feelings on his former friend. You take somebody you know unbelievably well, and then you read this thing and it doesnt connect.

But to Mr. Chiles, Mr. Martinez was never going to start over it was always going to end in Harlem.

He wanted to peg his hat on redemption, said Mr. Chiles, adding that Mr. Martinezs thirst for his former glory may also have played a role. Hes a narcissist beyond anything that I could put my finger on. He needed that attention.

In a scene that now feels foreboding, Mr. Martinezs character in Paid in Full spends the final scene agreeing to cooperate with federal agents.

Im not snitching on nobody in Harlem, Mr. Martinezs character says. Cause when I come home, Im still gon be the king.

Murray Carpenter contributed reporting from Lewiston, Maine. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

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He Was in Witness Protection in Maine. But His Harlem Life Kept Calling. - The New York Times

New York is a city thats seemingly always under construction. But for all that building, some richer neighborhoods havent added a single new home overall in the past decade and have even lost units.

Thats because so many people combined apartments or homes into one dwelling, the total for new housing dipped below zero, according to a new analysis by the Department of City Planning.

The Upper East Sides stagnation was particularly stark, the study shows. The area saw more than 2,000 residential units built since 2010. But because so many alterations took place there over the same period, much of the neighborhood lost housing.

Overall, the area added fewer new residential units over the past decade than 57 of the citys 59 community districts, the report said.

The news came to no surprise to Barry Schneider, an Upper East Sider for 54 years who lives in a condominium building on First Avenue that he estimates has lost about 20 units to combination renovations since hes lived there.

Its fairly common, he said. The apartment directly below us combined two floors. The apartment directly to the south of us, next door, they have a combined apartment.

The department analyzed the figures using its new database of all housing construction and demolition jobs approved by the Department of Buildings in the five boroughs since Jan. 1, 2010.

The vast majority of city neighborhoods added housing. In Hudson Yards, Long Island City, the Greenpoint waterfront and Downtown Brooklyn, the net gain for housing proved high up to 65 new units per acre.

But in other parts of town, demolitions and alterations wiped out new construction gains including in the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side adjacent to Central Park, most of SoHo and the West Village. Those areas lost between half a unit and six units per acre over the 10-year period analyzed.

The report analyzed data through June of 2020, accounting for the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic when some New Yorkers fled the richest parts of the city including both the highest and lowest housing-producing neighborhoods.

Howard Slatkin, deputy executive director for strategic planning at the Department of City Planning, believes this type of analysis is important to help New Yorkers to grasp the forces affecting the housing supply.

People see housing demand when it spreads vertically when buildings pop up, when you see new construction but what they dont see is that the demand for housing also spreads horizontally, he said. In the absence of those new additions, as affluent people take more space and larger residences for themselves, what you get is a reduction in total housing units.

The report includes alterations of all kinds, from relatively simple two-apartment combinations to mega-mansion projects like Russian billionaire Roman Abromavichs four-townhouse complex on East 75th Street.

It also includes those places where alterations actually added units, such as in Queens Ozone Park, where creating multiple apartments within a single-family home is common.

The report comes as conversations about how to contend with New Yorks housing affordability crisis seeps into the citys upcoming elections, with a fight over rezoning SoHo to allow for more residential housing taking center stage. Many mayoral candidates are aiming to make affordable housing a priority in their administrations.

More broadly, a cohort of City Council candidates have made bringing more affordable housing to the citys richest neighborhoods part of their campaigns.

On the Upper West Side, Sara Lind is among them. Her housing plan calls for changing land use rules to allow more dense residential construction and create subsidized apartments for low-income families.

Were losing units. We need more housing, and more of it needs to be affordable, she said. Instead, people are doing these conversions to create what works for their family.

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NYCs Wealthy Enclaves Lost Housing in Past Decade as Combining of Apartments Outpaced New Construction - THE CITY