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Options for Homes have resubmitted Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment applications to the City of Toronto for a housing proposal on the northeast corner of Markham Road and Dunelm Street in Scarborough. A cluster of six condominiums and townhome buildings would be built on the vacant site. Delivered over the course of four phases, the project would bring 780 residential units to the area, 300 of which would be affordable housing units.
Highlands Co-operative Development Corporation purchased the site from Build Toronto in 2018 and prepared a zoning submission in 2019. This resubmission was derived following an iterative process that included two Design Review Panel meetings, community consultation, and several meetings between the owners and City of Toronto Staff, and is based on comments received from these meetings.
Led by RAW Design, the development includes 6 buildings between 3.5 and 20 storeys. The revised proposal maintains the two proposed tall buildings along Markham Road, and public parkland at the other end, while open space would wrap the western, eastern, and northern edges of the site. The revisions replace townhouses on the south portion of the site with two blocks of stacked townhouses fronting onto Dunelm Street, and one mid-rise building and one-tall building to the north. This allows for the opening up of the centre of the site to create a large outdoor amenity space central of the site for future residents. It provides for transitions in heights downwards to the east, minimizing shadow impacts on adjacent properties and parks, while meeting the minimum separation distances and maximum floor plate sizes of City guidelines.
The site would be constructed in four phases above and below grade, moving clockwise from the southwestern corner. It will begin with the 20-storey Building A and the western block of stacked townhomes in Phase 1, and finish with the 8-storey Building D and the eastern block of stacked townhomes in Phase 4. In between, Phase 2 is a 19-storey building fronting on Markham Road while Phase 3 is a 15-storey building to the north-centre of the site.
The site would also be divided into three parcels, each with public frontage on Dunelm Street, each parcel becoming its own condominium corporation consisting of two buildings with shared facilities, agreements, and reciprocal easements where necessary. The entire development would accommodate 638 parking spaces (519 for residents, 115 for visitors, 4 car share), with 608 of them within an underground garage.
The total number of residential dwelling units has been increased to 780 (728 condominium and 52 townhouse), 300 of which are slated to receive funding from the City’s Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP) to improve affordability of those units. Per the documents, 44% of the total units will be two bedroom or larger. The townhouse block in Phase 1 is to be built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and be reserved for their client families.
While the majority of the residential outdoor amenity is located in the centre of the site, Buildings A and B also contain outdoor amenity on their respective podiums. Internal pedestrian walkways would facilitate access throughout the site and a private ring-road road, designed to look and feel like a public street, circulates the site.
A 1.1-acre portion located on the eastern portion of the site would be conveyed to the City as a public park.
You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like to, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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