Onward and upward: opening the door to wood-framed mid-rise projects.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: DESIGN-BUILD

Mid-rise wood frame buildings may soon become reality in Ontario. A consortium of building industry groups has been pushing for amendments to national and provincial building codes that will allow for six-storey wood frame developments construction.

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Marianne Berube, executive director of Ontario Wood Works!, a regional arm of the Canadian Wood Council, is confident change will come within a few months.

"We have the backing now. There's no reason why it shouldn't move forward."

Her group has enlisted powerful allies such as the Ontario Home Builders Association and the Building Industry and Land Development Association to finally remove a regulation four-storey cap on wood- framed buildings.

They contend that with advances in wood technology, better design and building systems, improved safety requirements, and a push by urban planners to infill cities rather than resort to sprawl, it's about time for changes in the Ontario Building Code.

Wood Works! and their partners want to follow the British Columbia experience where the provincial code was changed in 2009. It's resulted in 280 wood mid-rises either being built or now under construction.

Globally, B.C. has joined a growing list of jurisdictions such as Sweden. the United Kingdom and Australia, which permit wood mid-rises of six stories and taller.

Berube and her group lobbied for change in Ontario when the provincial code last came up for its five-year revision in 2011.

There was plenty of pushback from competing industry interests that raised the question of fire safety and Municipal Affairs and Housing asked for more research.

Previous research by Wood Works! in 2010 outlined some favourable findings on wood's advantages, potential markets, cost comparisons with other building materials, and what wood technologies exist.

Their latest report, "Unlocking the Potential for Mid-Rise Buildings: Six Storey Wood Structures," authored by former Toronto chief planner Paul Bedford, makes the case that six-storey wood buildings are more affordable to buy--about 10 to 15 per cent--than what's out there, and are ideally suited for high-density urban areas.

The next opportunity to change the Ontario code comes up in 2017 but Berube and her partners don't intend to wait that long.

They're out to make changes to the National Building and Fire Codes--which sets the same four-storey limit--at a series of stakeholder code review meetings this fall. Any changes will come out in the...