Stacked townhomes proposal - density in King

NRU
May 31, 2017
By Dominik Matusik

While there appears to be agreement among King Township residents near the King City GO Transit station that a nearby site should be intensified, there doesn’t seem to be consensus about what form development should take.

2472498 Ontario proposes to build 48 four-storey stacked townhouses with 48 underground parking spaces and 10 visitor surface spaces at a density of 109 units/ha and 1.23 FSI on Keele Street, north of Clearview Crescent. The site is within walking distance of both the GO train station and the King City village core.

Ward 1 councillor Cleve Mortelliti agrees the site is ripe for intensification, but disagrees with the proposed form. “The problem I am encountering is too much emphasis by developers being placed on maximizing density instead of trying to strike the right balance of what fits on a particular site,” Mortelliti wrote in an email to NRU.

“The site should be designed on the basis of 2 cars per unit... It would also make sense to incorporate commercial retail on the main floor. I believe a 2 story intensification project makes sense here ... This site is absolutely the right location for intensification, but to what extent? ... Too many units and not enough parking will exacerbate an already problematic parking and traffic problem in this area. Too much height will be overbearing for existing residents who will fall in its shadow.”

King planner Paul Kulyk agrees that the site is appropriate for redevelopment and intensification but told NRU the developer is going to have to continue working with the community to come up with an appropriate design.

“It’s in walking distance of the GO station and it’s walking distance to our core area ... the lands have already been designated as either core area or existing commercial area in our community plan ... To suggest that someone is going to take those vacant lots and build single homes on Keele Street [is] not likely.”

While Kulyk does not rule out heights of four storeys on the site, he says that it is unrealistic to expect households in this area to only own one vehicle and he would like the developer to provide at least two spaces per unit, plus additional visitor parking.

“The community [has] concerns with the height, density, the design and potential parking concerns,” Kulyk said. “Council [says] that what should be happening here is there should be a consultative process with the developer and the community to come up with a redesign for the site which addresses those four principle issues.”

Speaking on behalf of the developer, Evans Planning owner Murray Evans told NRU that the community understands the need for intensification and he hopes to convince residents that four storeys is appropriate.

“The municipality is anticipating some form of intensification in these locations it’s just a matter of how high, how much and what form,” Evans says. “The municipality’s official plan has a very low threshold for density so even townhouses would exceed the density, so it’s just coming to grips with what is the right form of development ... Everybody [at the public meeting], including area residents, admitted that this was a logical site for some form of intensification.”

Following the May 8 public meeting, council directed staff to continue to work with the developer and the community to resolve the outstanding concerns.