Shifting attitudes: Mississauga townhouses

NRU
April 26, 2017
By Andrew Cohrs

Despite some residents’ concerns, city staff and the local councillor are supporting a proposed townhouse development in Mississauga. The councillor says it’s a matter of changing attitudes - already perspectives are shifting.

“I’ve been telling everyone the same thing since 2006: development is coming. Either the community manages the development or the development manages us.

That’s just the truth...If this [application] would have come up in 2009, there would have been people out with pitchforks and they would have been really upset when it got approved,” Ward 1 councillor Jim Tovey told NRU.

Queenscorp is proposing to construct a 148-unit infill project at 1174-1206 Cawthra Road on a 1.3-ha site. The application includes 52 back-to- back townhouses, 64 stacked townhouses and 32 back-to-back stacked townhouses. The overall site density is proposed to be 1.48 fsi or 112 units per ha. Building heights are to be between three and 3 1/2 storeys. Adjacent to an older neighbourhood with detached and semi-detached dwellings, residents raised concerns about the proposal’s density and traffic. In response to these and staff comments, Queenscorp had revised its proposal to reduce the number of proposed units from 154 to 148, and increase setbacks from the adjacent neighbourhood.

Tovey says the resulting proposed development represents appropriate intensification at a “human scale.”

“We are fine with accepting the density we have to accept. We want our traditional neighbourhoods to be protected. The site [Queenscorp is] building on, we identified as a site for intensification. Right across the street there’s a community centre, a seniors centre, two arenas, two schools - of course, it’s a perfect place to densify.

It’s got everything you need, so why would you just say ‘no, no, no, no’. The other thing [the proposal does is ensure that]...the neighbourhood it abuts...will still be the same cool neighbourhood it has always been.”

Development and design director Lesley Pavan agrees. She told NRU that the application is appropriate as Cawthra Road is major corridor and the proposed development provides a transition between medium-density neighbourhoods along Cawthra and the lower density areas to the east. Furthermore, she says, residents’ attitudes toward higher density projects and newer building typologies, such as stacked townhouses, are changing after years of successful infill projects.

“With as many successful infill projects, people are feeling more comfortable with that change...moving to medium-density housing. I think people feel much more comfortable than they would have a decade ago....People are also well aware from news stories that there’s an affordable housing crisis in the GTA and other areas and I think people are understanding that we need to look at different housing typologies.”

Tovey agrees that attitudes towards denser developments are changing. He says that the upfront consultation on major planning documents, like the official plan, have helped educate and inform  residents about the need to accommodate population growth.

“The reason that the attitude is changing is because we have done more community consultation on our district secondary plans, our official plans and our master plans than anybody else in the country, and that I think has really been a benefit to the community to help them understand [more intensive development].”

Queenscorp CEO Mark Bozzo agrees about shifting attitudes. He told NRU that this proposal reflects a refinement of townhouse developments in Mississauga since 1999.

“The success of density is how you package it...As an industry, as a community, a market, a homeowner, and from the city’s perspective, we are making major improvements in terms of refining how to do [dense townhouse] developments really well.”

Nevertheless, opposition to the Queenscorp project exists. However, Tovey says that a vocal minority will not sway his support for good planning.

“Even if I get beat up by a minority of the residents for something that planning says is good planning, I’m going to support good planning.”

The Queenscorp official plan and zoning by-law amendment applications will be considered by the planning and development committee on May 1.