Architects, advocates team up on affordable tower to slow ‘avalanche of condominiums’

Thestar.com
July 3, 2019
Emily Mathieu

A team of architects and activists are gearing up to pitch what they envision as a new type of public housing, in the heart of one of Toronto’s poorest neighbourhoods, but first they need the city to agree to expropriate the land.

The property in question is a privately owned section of mostly grassy land, spread across 214 to 230 Sherbourne St., and includes a three-storey, boarded-up red brick heritage house called William Dineen House, located just south of Dundas St. E.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the Open Architecture Collaborative are making the case for a 22-storey tower that could have room for between 150 and 260 units of rent-geared-to-income housing and offer residents quick access to health services and meal programs all within a modern and energy efficient space.

The team, with fellow designers and activists, will present a report outlining their case for the city expropriating the land as well as sample renderings and a cardboard version of the tower during a press conference at city hall on Wednesday morning.

The team took into consideration community feedback, which focused heavily on the threat of gentrification in the neighbourhood, said Adrian Blackwell, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo.

“There is a kind of avalanche of condominiums that are coming from the core, and Regent Park to the east has been transformed into mixed-income community and a lot of the buildings there are private condominiums as well,” Blackwell said.

The work is a collaboration between the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the Open Architecture Collaborative.

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“This whole neighbourhood is changing very quickly and the people at the meetings we talked to were extremely concerned that there be substantial amounts of very rent-geared-to-income housing built in this neighbourhood.”

The building would consist of an 18-storey residential tower on top of a wider six-storey podium that would include a mix of housing and private amenities, such as health care and meal services, as well as public space that could be used for community programming.

Designers work on the proposed plan for the properties at 214-230 Sherbourne St.

Later on Wednesday, the team hopes to present their proposal at the city’s planning and housing committee, which is also set to discuss the need for more supporting housing, how city council can best access provincial and federal dollars for projects, and how to expand the city’s soon-to-run-dry affordable housing allowance program.

Blackwell said the final draft is a hybrid of three designs presented to community members at two public meetings, first at Regent Park and then nearby All Saints Church-Community Centre. There was a plan for a lowrise with a public courtyard, he said, a midrise building with a street wall and a tall tower. What community wanted most, he said, was density.

Mona Dai, an intern at an architecture firm who is volunteering as part of the Open Architecture Collaborative, said creating a dignified and livable space was top of mind.

“I think there is a lot of common sense put into it, in terms of thinking about how to create a building that is inclusive and welcoming to the public,” said Dai, noting the central courtyard’s sloping roofs that maximizes light. “The idea is there is going to be lots of greenery.”

Any structure, the group wrote in the report, could include features such as green roofs, permeable paving to reduce floodwater run-off and grey-water treatment systems.

Because the land would be owned by the city any potential development would be opened up for a request for proposal.

The property was briefly put up for sale in early 2018, during which time city staff did consider purchasing it, but it was quickly pulled off the market, the Star’s Rosie DiManno wrote last August, reporting on an OCAP protest at the site.

At that time city tax records placed the value of the empty lot and the vacant house at least $4 million, DiManno said.

Messages left last week for a lawyer who represented the property owners in a case before the Ontario Municipal Board and a real estate agent named on a since-removed sale sign, requesting to speak with the owners, were not responded to.

OCAP member Yogi Acharya said they wanted to put forward an actual model that could convince the city to choose dignity and community engagement over profit and displacement, while also being innovative.

“The consequences of inaction are quite dire,” said Acharya, adding this is one thing the city could do “at the epicentre of homelessness, that could have a substantial impact.”

Toronto does not have formal guidelines when it comes to taking over property for affordable housing -- a gap city staff identified in 2018 after being instructed to report back on the feasibility of expropriating the Sherbourne properties to be used as affordable housing. City staff have since been instructed to draft “a policy or standardized approach” for acquiring real estate for affordable housing, expected to come back to committee in the fall.

Sean Gadon, executive director of the city’s housing secretariat, said accompanying that policy will be specific advice on what to do with the Sherbourne property, adding the city has commissioned an appraisal of the site.

The city does have the power to expropriate property, if community need demands it and council signs off, and in those cases pays the owner the market price. Gadon said the city always hopes to negotiate with property owners.

“We have been given direction to come back and report on a policy for expropriation,” to expand affordable housing, he said. “In the fall when we report I would bring back specific recommendations with this site on whether to pursue that or not.”