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Toronto offers developers land, financial incentives to build affordable housing

Mayor John Tory says fast-tracking approvals and other incentives will help build mixed-income neighbourhoods.

Thestar.com
Nov. 19, 2015
By Jennifer Pagliaro

The city is offering incentives to developers to build affordable housing downtown and elsewhere as the waiting list for those units climbs toward 200,000 people.

On Thursday, Mayor John Tory announced the expansion and details of an Open Door program to eliminate red tape at city hall and also provide a financial push for developers to build.

“We are massively behind,” Tory said, referring to building new housing. “The days of city hall taking months and years and decades - only, half the time, to find ways to say no - must come to an end, especially in regards to affordable housing.”

Part of those efforts include fast-tracking development of city surplus lands, such as the gravel pit at the northwest edge of CityPlace in the city’s downtown, where Tory made the announcement. The site has been empty for more than 20 years.

Once developed, that space will include a minimum of 80 affordable housing units, said local Councillor Joe Cressy. A request for proposals will be sent out in the new year.

“Today there are 18,000 residents living in this neighbourhood, and as a city we need to continue to focus on building neighbourhoods, not just adding density,” Cressy said, adding that that includes park space, social amenities and community space. “But it also means ensuring that a complete community is a mixed-income community.”

The CityPlace site is one of five city sites that will host the creation of 389 affordable rental or ownership units. The city has also identified 13 additional surplus pieces of land for future development as part of the program.

Incentives for private developers will include waiving permit fees, streamlining the application process and deferring development charges. Further details are expected to be released next spring.

Tory also called on the provincial and federal governments to “search their hearts and souls” and offer up more public land for affordable housing development.

The province doesn’t mandate affordable housing for new developments, something the city has called on Queen’s Park to change. Some at city hall, including Councillor Mike Layton, have continued to lobby vocally for legislative changes that would bring inclusionary zoning to Toronto.

Tory said he has been assured that the incentives of the Open Door program are adequate for developers to volunteer space for affordable housing.

“Let’s see how we do at doing it this way, which is providing significant incentives to them, providing a streamlined approval process, putting up some of our own land,” Tory said. “If it’s not proceeding at a fast enough pace, based on this invitation to people to participate, we’ll have to look for other measures.”

Liberal MP Adam Vaughan (Spadina-Fort York) said inclusionary zoning is “critically important” and that the city’s condo boom should have included affordable housing decades ago to avoid the current crisis.

“The more integrated the housing, the more successful the housing, the better the outcomes to the people living in it,” Vaughan said. “It shouldn’t just be a vertical suburb, it should be a vertical neighbourhood.”

While he said federal and provincial partners need to provide financial assistance - something he said would be coming from the new Liberal government - the former city councillor said it’s up to council to push for that inclusion, development by development.

The city launched the Open Door program earlier this year with a vacant site near Dupont and Bathurst Sts., which has been tendered for development.

Sites for affordable housing

The city has chosen five sites for the development of 389 affordable housing units, to be offered to non-profit or private builders:

Thirteen future sites have also been identified, representing a total of almost 1,600 units across the city:
Etobicoke

North York

Toronto/East York

Scarborough