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One tulip tree = Six floors of condos

April 18th, 2010 · 6 Comments

As Joyce Kilmer didn’t put it, I think that I shall never see, A condo lovely as a tree.

And that’s how city staff seem to feel too, as you’ll see if you carefully read this report where they decline to provide a would-be developer with six additional floors of density in order to preserve a “heritage” tulip tree in the West End.

But note that they would have been willing to give the six extra floors in exchange for the tree except for one glitch — the owner of the neighbouring property, where half the tree’s root bulb exists, declined to provide a guarantee to protect the tree. So staff, feeling that there were no guarantees that the tree would stay and the community could end up with a taller tower in exchange for nothing, declined to go for this deal.

An eye-opener for me. I had no idea the city traded density for trees. This ought to get people in the West End, currently in an uproar about trading density for permanent market rental apartments, into even more of a tizzy.

Or maybe not. Maybe they’ll see that as a good deal, in a way that density-for-rentals isn’t, and totally wrong. After all, blogs are made by fools like me.

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