Facing a growing list of condo buildings planned within their community, members of the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association decided to get a whole lot smarter about dealing with new development.

The residents' association for the downtown Toronto neighbourhood teamed up with Eneract, which works to promote renewable energy and sustainability initiatives.

Together, the two organizations created something called smartliving St. Lawrence, a broad-based framework for managing new development in the community.

But more than that, smartliving St. Lawrence is also a means for delivering energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable initiatives to those already living and working in the neighbourhood.

"The decisions we make today — and this is right up front in smart living — should be based in large measure on the kind of world we want to leave our kids and grandchildren," says Cameron Miller, president of the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association.

"We want to see development right now that's environmentally responsible, and the more so the better. It makes sense socially, environmentally and economically," says Miller, now retired, who spent his career working on international trade agreements for the Canadian government.

"When you wander around our neighbourhood, it's a developer's paradise and we need to get on top of it," says Paul Smith, president of the St. Lawrence Condominium Ratepayers' Association.

"We are attracting a lot of development and a lot of new people. And we want to develop progressively, while recognizing our past and greening our future," says Smith, a retired ad agency executive.

With a population of 18,000, the St. Lawrence neighbourhood stretches from the railway tracks near the Gardiner Expressway north to Queen St. E., and from Yonge to Parliament Sts.

Within those boundaries, at least nine mid-rise or highrise condo projects are selling or planned.

Already existing in the area are 36 condominium buildings, 12 housing co-ops and a half dozen socially assisted housing complexes.

Miller says more condo developments — many more, in fact — are expected to follow those currently underway.

Work on smartliving St. Lawrence began in spring 2004, when Miller says his association came to the realization that a more comprehensive approach was needed.

"It wasn't a case of wanting to fend off the real estate developers," he says. "It was very much, `Let's see if we can create a sustainable community here.'"

To do that, the neighbourhood association obtained funding to develop smartliving St. Lawrence, including a $113,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and an $80,000 grant from the Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

It then hired a co-ordinator to bring smart-living initiatives to the area.

"Community, economy and the environment —those are the three pillars of smart living," says full-time co-ordinator Ben Marans.

"We wanted to do a program that dealt with energy conservation, sustainable development, the economy and the health of the community itself."

Economically, smartliving St. Lawrence (http://www.smartliving.ca/) means supporting local businesses and employers and developing job-growth strategies.

Under the environmental component, smartliving will offer condo boards, building managers and area residents and businesses seminars on subjects such as retrofitting older buildings and reducing energy use.

To encourage more sustainable transportation methods, the group has been working with AutoShare to launch a membership drive in the neighbourhood, planned for early 2006.

The two organizations are working with building owners and developers to get more parking spots in the community for the AutoShare program.

(AutoShare is a co-operative car-sharing network that gives its members 24-hour access to a fleet of cars stationed around the city. Members pay by the hour to use the vehicles).

And AutoShare plans to offer a discount to area residents and businesses.

"What we're doing with the smartliving St. Lawrence program, we're creating a template for other communities to adopt," says Marans.

The community focus of smartliving is the part that impacts on new development.

The neighbourhood association worked with the city and other community stakeholders to write a set of urban design guidelines.

These guidelines call for new buildings to be constructed to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard of design and construction, issued by the Canada Green Building Council.

To earn LEED certification, a building must be constructed to advanced standards of energy and water-use efficiency, and incorporate sustainable-development specifications throughout the design and construction process.

(Visit http://www.cagbc.org/ for more LEED details.)

Although the St. Lawrence design guidelines aren't mandatory for developers planning condos in the area, they have been approved by city council and will be part of the discussion during the community consultation process.

"When one turns to the environmental, social and economic — the three pillars of smart living — that's there within the guidelines and that's where LEED comes into play," Miller says.

He described the community's approach to development as the carrot and stick method.

The carrot is the community will support new development.

"The stick is, if you want our support, we want the environmental principles within the guidelines applied," says Miller.

Aspen Ridge Homes is planning to redevelop the old Goodwill site, which extends from George to Jarvis Sts. and from Adelaide to Richmond Sts.

The plan includes about 500 condo units, in two highrise towers rising from a low-rise podium.

Andrew De Gasperis, a partner in Aspen Ridge, says from the beginning of consultations, neighbourhood representatives stressed they wanted a LEED building.

"We have promised that we are going to go LEED certified," De Gasperis says.

There are a couple other reasons behind Aspen Ridge's decision to build a LEED condominium on the Goodwill site.

"I look at it as a learning experience from our end, because I think the city is really going to be pushing it (LEED) next year," says De Gasperis.

"We want to hopefully get some marketing benefits out of it as well, and become more efficient at LEED for our next building."

The Canada Green Building Council reports that, for mid-rise and highrise condo buildings, achieving basic-level LEED status adds 1 to 3 per cent to construction costs. (Some in the building industry say that's a conservative estimate.)

Lewis Poplak, director of planning for Context Developments Inc., says the challenge with building LEED condos is keeping the sales price of units on par with market averages.

"While at the same time accommodating the necessary capital-cost increases needed to incorporate sustainable measures," Poplak adds.

In the St. Lawrence neighbourhood, Context has built the Mozo condominium, has the 45-storey Spire under construction, and is planning a third project in the area.

While not specifically built to the LEED standard, Poplak says there are many sustainable features in Mozo and Spire.

They include heat-pump systems in the units, which encourage conservation by letting residents control their own heating and cooling; low-e (low-emission) windows, which help reduce heating and cooling loss to the outside; and chutes with tri-sorters, giving residents a three-stream garbage and recycling system.

"The St. Lawrence neighbourhood was a pioneer in urban regeneration. It makes sense that they would embrace forward thinking as far as new development in the community and in retrofitting" older buildings, says Poplak.

Su Cadogan, who has lived for the past 26 years in a housing co-op in St. Lawrence, says the neighbourhood needs smart living.

"I think it's about time. The air quality down here gets really bad in the summer with the Gardiner and the Lake Shore rushing by," she says.

Many of the area's older condo and co-op buildings are reaching an age where they require mechanical retrofits or other upgrades, notes Cadogan.

"The crunch is coming. This year, the energy costs are going to skyrocket and people are going to start focusing on this stuff," she says.

Cadogan says it makes sense to build to the higher standards of energy efficiency now available.

"It would be nice to do it right, from the beginning. It's nice to think we might take a small step towards thinking of the environment."