Toronto 705 Warden Avenue | 63.4m | 19s | CreateTO | superkül

Housing Now program update is on the agenda for the July 7th CreateTO Mtg.

Report here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ra/bgrd/backgroundfile-168611.pdf

From said report:

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The proposed development of the seven-acre site at 705 Warden Ave., at the northeast corner of Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue East, will include approximately 600 residential homes, comprising:
  • 275 affordable rental homes
  • 325 market rent homes
The development also includes the expansion of Warden Hilltop Park, the renaturalization of land adjacent to Taylor Massey Creek, new public streets, improvements to the public realm, additional retail space, and a new child care centre.
 
Greenwin and Kingsett will be taking this one on:

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Yeah, this is broadly a really bad site plan. Too sprawling, not sufficiently dense, chunky building footprints (these are of course common hallmarks of much of the HN portfolio).
Round-2 sites are much better than the Round-1 sites --- and we did what we could to make the 705 WARDEN site better. It started-out at only 450 total units w/ 225 as affordable-rental, and we eventually got them to 600... but even adding 25% to the units doesn't really do much when the initial numbers from the City were so low. We learned a bunch of lessons about how to push the City along based on what happened (or didn't) at WARDEN.

 
@HousingNowTO You may wish to make a note of this activity in the Lobbyist Registry in regards to this site:

Details for Subject Matter Registration: SM32495​


Decision(s) or issue(s) to be lobbied

Official Plan Amendment on Updating the Definition of Affordable Rental and Ownership Housing 705 Warden Ave, Scarborough

Beneficiary is listed as 'Great Resolutions Inc.'.........

But 'other beneficiaries shows 'Greenwin'
 
@HousingNowTO You may wish to make a note of this activity in the Lobbyist Registry in regards to this site:

Details for Subject Matter Registration: SM32495​


Decision(s) or issue(s) to be lobbied

Official Plan Amendment on Updating the Definition of Affordable Rental and Ownership Housing 705 Warden Ave, Scarborough

Beneficiary is listed as 'Great Resolutions Inc.'.........

But 'other beneficiaries shows 'Greenwin'
Thanks, a number of groups are working to get "Affordable-Ownership Housing" included in HOUSING NOW program - using something like an Options-for-Homes or Habitat-for-Humanity model.
 
A couple of renders from the SPA, dated December 21/21

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This one makes me laugh:

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First off, the creek is well below this elevation, you wouldn't be able to see any towers if you were at the level of the creek or maybe just the top of one, if you were up against the south bank.

Ok...so :I'm being pedantic; but the green spaces above the creek doesn't look like this now, and won't after either, as it's due to be naturalized and planted accordingly.

w/e, LOL

Also, that perspective simply can't match the description, best I can figure. You'd have to call this a north-west view, at the very least; it's as much west as north.

@Art Tsai You may wish to add the renders above, and check for any other new info. There are changes in height and unit count.

Link below:


From the Cover Letter:

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@HousingNowTO

Increase in Unit Count of 81 total.
 
Increase in Unit Count of 81 total.
681 units means new SPA has +81 Total Units, but -25 Affordable Units.

Not really surprised because the whole damn project was too small to make the math work from the start.

I expect the City will insist that the +81 units have to go into the MARKET RENTAL pool,.


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The proposed development of the seven-acre site at 705 Warden Ave., at the northeast corner of Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue East, will include approximately 600 residential homes, comprising:
  • 275 affordable rental homes
  • 325 market rent homes
The development also includes the expansion of Warden Hilltop Park, the renaturalization of land adjacent to Taylor Massey Creek, new public streets, improvements to the public realm, additional retail space, and a new child care centre.

Resetting these numbers from above to new DEC 2021 SPA = will include approximately 681 residential homes, comprising:
  • 250 affordable rental homes (-25 affordable units)
  • 431 market rent homes (+106 market rental units)
 
Resetting these numbers from above to new DEC 2021 SPA = will include approximately 681 residential homes, comprising:
  • 250 affordable rental homes (-25 affordable units)
  • 431 market rent homes (+106 market rental units)

In all this, I'm less phased than you might be by the heights in the mid-20s or the park allocation.

I find the lowrise to be an oddly severe transition and it seems there might be some upward room there that should have been taken.

But we can all agree the TTC building is the bizarre outlier.

I have yet to hear a compelling reason for its existence; never mind why it can't have residential over the top.
 

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