Responding to housing demand: making room for growth in Brampton

NRU
April 5, 2017
By Andrew Cohrs

Despite having approval for a 22-storey high-rise, a Brampton developer has submitted a new application
for a 31-storey tower to take its place. While staff are cautious about its potential impacts, the local councillor says the development is just what the city needs.

“These are the type of projects that I think politically we have to have the courage to support because not
only are you bringing that intensification that you’re looking for but I think what is being proposed is architecturally interesting and it’s along the Queen Street corridor,” Ward 3 councillor Martin Medeiros told NRU.

Originally part of an approved three-phase development with two 22-storey towers and 32 townhouses, Mattamy Homes is now seeking to increase the permitted density by adding nine storeys and about 90 more units. It is proposing to construct a 31-storey, mixeduse building with 272 units and 498 m2 of commercial uses on the first floor at 209 and 215 Queen Street East and 50 Hillcrest Avenue. The tower is proposed to be connected by a three-storey podium to the existing 22-storey building immediately to its east. The new proposal also includes reductions to vehicle parking, building setbacks and landscaped open space requirements. The site specific policy permits up-to-22 storeys and up-to-460 units on the entire site.

While staff have yet to make a recommendation, Brampton planner David VanderBerg told NRU that the proposal presents a number of issues that will need careful evaluation. These include the proposed increase in height, the additional units and the reduction in parking. Also, the previous planning approval contained angular plane requirements for the towers in relation to single-family homes immediately adjacent to the site. VanderBerg noted that the new proposal essentially removes this requirement, thus further scrutiny is needed to determine how the proposed building would transition to the lower-scale neighborhood.

However, Medeiros is quick to point out that the development is within a provincial growth centre and located in an ideal place for intensification. He says that given Brampton’s forecasted population growth and current housing shortage, the development would be meeting the housing needs of the city.

“It’s not that [the increase in height] doesn’t concern me... I don’t have to tell anybody about the housing shortage right now and we have the opportunity to intensify in a way that is aesthetically interesting [and] along our business corridor, one of the most important arteries in the city. It’s in proximity to the hospital. It’s in proximity to transit. It’s something I would support...It’s meeting a housing need and [addressing a] housing shortage that we have in Brampton.”

A public meeting was held on Monday night. A recommendation report is expected to be considered by the planning and development committee before the fall.