[URBAN NOTE] On adding new shops to Toronto high-rises

[rfmcdonald]

There's been some interesting discussion in Toronto about retrofitting large, older, apartment complexes to include more shops and services. (I quite approve.)

From Torontoist's Desmond Cole:

The City of Toronto is exploring the possibility of using more commercial and community spaces in highrise apartment properties. Proposed new zoning rules would allow property owners and residents to turn unused spaces into markets, doctors’ offices, banks, health centres, and community centres.

The City is revisiting the current rules—which prohibit such uses—to address highrise dwellers’ need for amenities within walking distance. Many neighbourhoods lack local services, because they were developed with the assumption that residents would own cars and be able to drive to their shopping and service destinations. Highrise neighbourhood tenants, though, are increasingly low-income, and are actually more likely than other Torontonians to walk or use transit.

The City hosted the last of six public meetings on “Residential Apartment Commercial” zoning last week in the Pape Avenue and Cosburn Avenue area, near a dense block of large apartment buildings along Cosburn. According to Graeme Stewart, an architect who worked with the City to develop the proposed zoning rules, tenants could benefit from expanded use of apartment parking lots and ground floor spaces.

“The big idea is to get more life and energy into these places where thousands of people are living,” Stewart told the gathering of about 40 people at Bethany Baptist Church. “It gets pretty rough when you don’t have a car and you have to walk for kilometres to get to the grocery store.”

Local residents Deric Varcoe and Michelle Hayes told us that they support the proposal, and that they currently live in a condo building that includes a local community organization. “If it’s bringing in more local business, it’s definitely a good thing,” Hayes said. Varcoe added, “In our case, we don’t mind living above a community centre. We know they’re going to be somewhere in the neighbourhood anyway, so why not in our building?”

From CBC's Michelle Adelman:

Originally conceived as "towers in the park," the high rises were built in the 1960s and 1970s and marketed to young couples. Each apartment came with a couple of underground parking spaces and the couple were expected to find everything they might need at the local mall, a five to 10 minute drive away.

But over the years, the towers evolved into the city’s stock of affordable housing. They are often the first home for families new to Canada.

Iqbal is just a few minutes walk from a nearby grocery store in her Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood. But other apartment dwellers are not as fortunate. Some are severely inconvenienced by living in residential neighbourhoods a few buses or an arduous walk from the nearest food store.

The new zoning will only apply to buildings of at least 100 residential units. It allows a range of commercial uses including green grocers, professional offices and services such as hair stylists to establish themselves on the ground floor or basement levels of residential buildings. If the site is large enough, adding onto the existing building or even constructing a new free-standing one is possible.

"We’re trying to create as flexible an opportunity as possible here to accommodate the different types of situations that the buildings find themselves in," said Joe D’Abramo, director of zoning and environmental planning at the City of Toronto.

From Global News' Vanessa Naughton:

Many of Toronto’s high-rises and apartments were built post-war, marketed to young Canadians looking to settle down outside of the downtown core. These high-rises were built based on the idea that these young couples would have access to a vehicle, and would be able to drive to amenities like grocery stores and community centres.

Over the years, Toronto’s housing focus shifted and high-rises became home to lower-income residents who rely on public transportation to travel to places like grocery stores or doctor’s offices.

Since March, there have been six public open houses to discuss potential sites for the new Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) Zone. These areas include East Scarborough (Kingston/Lawrence), Bathurst-Finch, Rexdale, Weston-Mount Dennis, Thorncliffe Park and Pape Village.

Jane Welsh, a Project Manager for the City of Toronto advised the future of these plans do look promising, but there are still a few more steps in the process.

“We just finished our rounds of consultations, we did six meetings, and we’ll be back with our full report on May 29th. From there, Planning and Growth will make their recommendations, and then it will go to council who will make their decision in June.”

If the rezoning is approved by council it would then be up to property owners to decide whether or not they’d like to convert their unused space into commercial businesses.