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Pamela Blais

@pamelablais.bsky.social
228 followers 327 following 109 posts

City planner. Author, Perverse Cities: Hidden Subsidies, Wonky Policy, and Urban Sprawl.

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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Denser cities are not only more environmentally sustainable, but more economically productive, fairer, and better for workers. Removing height restrictions can realise these positive effects. @ahlfeldt.bsky.social ow.ly/lp6e50YwbjW
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Thank you for securing this approval Sean! We are excited to move forward….
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Wow. Crypto meets housing market speculation meets municipal property tax. gratiotlabs.substack.com/p/how-realto...
gratiotlabs.substack.com
How RealToken-Linked Transfers Could Be Influencing Detroit’s 2026 Assessments
Sales linked to RealToken appear repeatedly in the neighborhood valuation study, raising questions about whether mass appraisal systems are adapting to new speculative ownership models.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Now that EHON is wrapping up, what should @planning.cityof.toronto.ca ‘s next pressing planning priorities be?
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Thing is you don’t need the cumbersome and no doubt lengthy process of creating municipal service corporations for water, etc. Just create a separate property tax levy on new units for capital costs. This takes costs out of home prices and annualizes them.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Great article on single stair buildings and my Toronto sixplex. With multiplexes now as-of-right, single stair solutions offer huge potential for simple, high quality, livable, replicable buildings within neighbourhoods. I hope many others will be encouraged to pursue this potential.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
@shawnmicallef.bsky.social
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Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 10/12/2025
In 2021 I connected “stair daddy” @holz-bau.bsky.social with CoV staff to see if they had any funding for a study. His report (and obsessive posting) helped kick off a movement that now is taking hold across North America.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Did you know that as per a new Planning Act Regulation, as long as a building setback is 90% of a required min setback from a lot line, it no longer has to go to Committee of Adjustment? EG if a required front yard setback is 3 m, you can have 2.7 m.
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Conrad Speckert @conradspeckert.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
They are single exit stair configurations as permitted for sprinklered buildings of up to 25m in height by the National Construction Codes of Australia.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
I feel that there hasn’t been attention paid to the fact that as per Bill 17, development charges on condos & ownership housing are no longer payable upon building permit, but upon occupancy permit. This is helpful, bc developers no longer have to finance the cost of DCs thru construction.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Interesting that private apartment construction tanked across all the former TO municipalities by the end of the 70s, not just the one with a new reform council in ‘72. Plus a lot of new units were built in the burbs! nb data is from a diffrnt source than Jeff’s chart, so #s not exactly comparable.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Just a note on the pressurized stairwell.. our units open directly into the stairwell, which in itself contravenes code. If we had vestibules/corridors, pressurization would not have been needed but we opted for the latter because the former would have impacted unit layouts given our small building.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Update on my single exit stair ASP: we have an approval! Thanks to sixplex and single stair supporters Mayor Olivia Chow, Cllr Jamaal Myers, @joshmatlow.bsky.social and others who get why single exit stairs are key to creating livable, accessible, small scale housing. 1/6
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
This is an interesting finding: that variation in housing gaps ie excess demand occurs within LAs ie municipalities, rather than between them. In other words, there no high or low excess demand municipalities, but there are high and low excess demand neighbourhoods within all municipalities.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
This is a really interesting study and approach that identifyies where, specifically, new homes are most wanted and where the housing gaps are.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
This is a great explainer of the excellent reasons for and current obstacles to building livable, larger housing units in smaller, low-rise buildings. #singlestair
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Brian F. Kelcey @stateofthecity.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Because of these two posts, and considerable bitter experience. Even if you design the regulations the right way, the silo-cultural nature of our various building/zoning depts means they will still use discretionary authority to escalate details, demands and requirements.
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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
This is yet another example of where the province *should* do unilateral housing reform for all municipalities via changes to the building code, to enable single stair buildings. A lot of people with moderate opposition to new housing claim to want more 2+BR apartments; this is how we get there.
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Conrad Speckert @conradspeckert.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
This pilot project for SES building design is also featured here. Others of similar configuration have been accepted in Vancouver, Edmonton and Hamilton. singlestair.ca/Office-Ou
singlestair.ca
Office Ou — Single Stair Alternative Solutions: CMHC Housing Supply Challenge
Office Ou Pilot Project (Toronto) Typology 3-Storey Apartment Building Occupancy Group C, 6 Dwelling Units Classification 2024 Ontario Building Code,...
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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Toronto simply does not want to solve the housing crisis.
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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
This is another place the mayor could force some change. It's wonky and won't win hearts and minds widely but when asked about what she's doing about housing she can point to it vs her councillors stopping housing (Fletcher on Craven Ave)
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 16/10/2025
And it has a friggin elevator!! A three-story building in North America with an elevator. You NEVER see that – it’s likely costing around $200,000 (CAD). Stair injuries and deaths are far more common than fire ones. Disability and elderly advocates should be storming City Hall about this decision.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 16/10/2025
This far exceeds US (IBC) standards and Toronto still denied – wide stairways and even wider landing, passive ventilation, very low occupant load, and balconies for refuge and rescue. Balconies alone make it safer than code compliance, because they avoid a single point of failure (unit front door)
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
After TO Council passed a motion indicating the City was open to Alternative Solution Proposals for a single stair in apts up to 4 storeys, I applied for a single stair in a 3 storey Part 9 6plex. I’m told it’s the first one, so it’s a test case. Here’s how it’s going. #singlestair #sixplex
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
We love to see it: NYC adds four more bus routes to its wildly successful bus camera enforcement program (47 routes now have them).
amny.com
Four new MTA buses now have cameras to catch cars illegally parked, improperly using bus lanes
Four more MTA bus routes in NYC have automated camera enforcement to catch vehicles improperly using bus lanes and busways.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
You can argue about DCs, but this article fails to mention that by provincial law, existing taxpayers must pay for any benefit they receive from growth-related infrastructure (GRI). In TO, existing taxpayers pay about 50% of GRI costs ($24 billion), new development 31% ($14B).
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Anybody else have an ASP application for a single stair building in Toronto under review rn?
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Single exit stair people: What would/should be considered a reasonable stair width in a single stair bldg? BC Code says 1500 mm up to 6 storeys. City of Toronto guidance report says maybe 1650 mm up to 4 storeys. What’s reasonable for a small footprint 3 storey 6plex? For a 6 storey apt building?
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
What struck me about the debate was that 6 plexes were portrayed by opponents as some kind of cataclysmic change to neighbourhoods. But 4 plexes are already allowed city-wide. 6 plexes would maintain the same building envelope,…. 1/2
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Toronto City Planning and Development Review @planning.cityof.toronto.ca · 10/06/2025
This includes a report recommending updates to our zoning to allow up to a sixplex (plus garden suite) across the city; updates to allow for semi-detached fourplexes (i.e. four units on each side); and allowing new housing around "tower-in-the-park" sites. 3/
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Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 01/05/2025
Congrats @conradspeckert.bsky.social 2025 RAIC Awards: Single Exit Stair Building Code Reform — www.canadianarchitect.com/raic-awards-...
canadianarchitect.com
2025 RAIC Awards: Single Exit Stair Building Code Reform
An in-depth research project paves the way for building code updates that would remove a key barrier to missing middle housing.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w... Quelle surprise! Sounds like good grounds for cancelling the deal.
nytimes.com
European Spa Company Therme Misrepresented Itself in an Effort to Expand Into Canada
A Times investigation shows Therme, a European firm, exaggerated its track record in securing a deal with Ontario, and government auditors found that the process had been unfair and opaque.
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Isn’t the whole US tariff agenda really about replacing (progressive) income taxes with much a more regressive consumption tax?
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
Great! I hope the sixplex package will also include the same financial incentives currently available to fourplexes? ie no parks levies or DCs….
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Good to see the City consulting on allowing 6 plexes re EHON. One thing the City could do *right now*: extend existing multiplex (up to 4 units) incentives (financial, zoning) to 6 plexes in those areas of the City where apartments are already permitted! 1/6
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
On obstacles to small apartment buildings in the City of Toronto, Exhibit X: parks levy. I am trying to build a 6 unit, 3 storey apt building on a residential street where apartments are as-of-right. Parks levy is payable to support creation of new parks. All fine. 1/7
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Pamela Blais @pamelablais.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
This analysis I did for Neptis Foundation in 2018 seems newly relevant…. mapping the location of GGH jobs in the industries that are most vulnerable to trade shocks (based on the share of industry jobs relying directly on exports). neptis.org/publications...
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