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The City of Toronto’s Planning and Housing Committee met in February, 2020 to discuss a number of affordable housing projects that the City is undertaking. One of the less-often mentioned projects (secondary to the higher-profile Housing Now projects) is the revitalization of Firgrove Grassways, an ageing Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) townhouse community just south of Jane and Finch at Firgrove Crescent. The committee directed the TCHC to advance a rental housing demolition and conversion application to the City, requesting the planning department to expedite the necessary application to speed-up the timeline of the revitalization.
The current housing complex is in a state of disrepair, with 134 of the existing 236 units recently vacated because they were no longer safe for occupancy by tenants. The 12-storey apartment building and adjacent townhouses at the north end of the site on Needle Firway would stay in place, retaining 152 units.
The master plan demolishes and replaces the other 236 existing units, while adding 107 additional affordable units and 600 market units in the reconstruction. The conversion will increase the living space on the site by 32% to 943 units, adding 25,000 ft² of community space in the process.
Although no rezoning application has yet been submitted to the City, a masterplan summary document outlined at the meeting depicts a 8-block development gridded by both new streets and pedestrian walkways. A community centre and park are to be located in the centre of the revitalization. Now that the project has received the committee's approval, documents included with the subsequent Rezoning application will eventually detail the architecture, unit mix, and urban design plans for the revitalization.
We will keep you updated as a rezoning application is submitted to the City for the Firgrove-Grassways revitalization. In the meantime, learn more about the project by visiting the associated Database file and Forum thread, linked below.
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