Toronto 1521 Queen West | 29.95m | 8s | BSäR Group | Core Architects

Question , section 37 is supposed to be for community benefit? is housing certain individuals a community benefit? 1 million can pay for the redevelopment of a local park which all neighbourhood residents could enjoy. As we all know, the housing market is insane and 1 million may secure only a handful of residential units, which is not exactly benefiting the community, but only a very small number of community members. Is section 37 being used properly in this case? Is it the right mechanism for fixing housing issues?
 
Jacob Lisgar said:
Question , section 37 is supposed to be for community benefit? is housing certain individuals a community benefit? 1 million can pay for the redevelopment of a local park which all neighbourhood residents could enjoy. As we all know, the housing market is insane and 1 million may secure only a handful of residential units, which is not exactly benefiting the community, but only a very small number of community members. Is section 37 being used properly in this case? Is it the right mechanism for fixing housing issues?
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This idea gets thrown around a lot = Is new "Affordable Housing" a community benefit..?

I guess it depends on how many people you want Sleeping / Camping in your "local park which all neighbourhood residents could enjoy" after the park is redeveloped with the Section-37 money..?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1407501612839489539
 
HousingNowTO said:
This idea gets thrown around a lot = Is new "Affordable Housing" a community benefit..?

I guess it depends on how many people you want Sleeping / Camping in your "local park which all neighbourhood residents could enjoy" after the park is redeveloped with the Section-37 money..?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1407501612839489539
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Im not disputing the need for housing people. But is section 37 really the right mechanism for this. And as far as people living in parks goes, there seems to be other funded city programs that deal with this. It's an odd assumption that if section 37 funding is used for housing that someone living in a nearby park will get access to that housing. And with smaller amounts under a few million dollars, the amount of housing being added is marginal.
 
Jacob Lisgar said:
Im not disputing the need for housing people. But is section 37 really the right mechanism for this. And as far as people living in parks goes, there seems to be other funded city programs that deal with this. It's an odd assumption that if section 37 funding is used for housing that someone living in a nearby park will get access to that housing. And with smaller amounts under a few million dollars, the amount of housing being added is marginal.
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Section 37 is regularly used for Affordable-Housing deals, often money is pooled together out of various Section-37 deals to create a substantial block of new Affordable-Housing. Section-37 has also been used to fund repairs on existing Affordable-Housing, etc.

"City Council authorize $3,837,207.00 in Section 37 funds in the Capital Revolving Reserve Fund for Affordable Housing approved for the creation of affordable ownership units in Alexandra Park revitalization be provided to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Toronto towards the purchase price of up to six condominium units at 115 Denison Avenue."

 
Jacob Lisgar said:
Question , section 37 is supposed to be for community benefit? is housing certain individuals a community benefit? 1 million can pay for the redevelopment of a local park which all neighbourhood residents could enjoy. As we all know, the housing market is insane and 1 million may secure only a handful of residential units, which is not exactly benefiting the community, but only a very small number of community members. Is section 37 being used properly in this case? Is it the right mechanism for fixing housing issues?
Click to expand...
I tend to agree that this was not the original intention of s. 37 funds, which were meant to fund community-wide improvements and neighbourhood beautification.

Affordable housing, as a basic necessity, should be paid for by all levels of government out of general tax revenues as are things like hospitals, education, and other programs.

I understand why it’s being done, but I worry that the regular use of s. 37 funds this way is depriving us of other transformative community projects in the long run.
 
mcornett said:
I tend to agree that this was not the original intention of s. 37 funds, which were meant to fund community-wide improvements and neighbourhood beautification.

Affordable housing, as a basic necessity, should be paid for by all levels of government out of general tax revenues as are things like hospitals, education, and other programs.

I understand why it’s being done, but I worry that the regular use of s. 37 funds this way is depriving us of other transformative community projects in the long run.
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Section-37 regularly gets put toward things like School Pools and Playgrounds and even Daycares which - like new Affordable Housing - are "transformative community projects".

When I see how much money gets spent on stuff like PUBLIC ART in comparison, I am quite happy to see some money from new development being spent on keeping neighbourhoods available to a mixed-income housing.
 
The summary by Perks:

Update on 1521 Queen St W – Gord Perks

gordperks.ca gordperks.ca

Update on 1521 Queen St W​


The application at 1521 Queen St West was originally submitted to the City in 2019, then scheduled for an appeal hearing at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) in 2020. In the meantime, the parties to the appeal, including the applicant, the City, and the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land trust, engaged in without prejudice settlement discussions which resulted in the applicant making a settlement offer to resolve the Appeal.

The City Solicitor submitted a Request for Direction Report for 1521 Queen Street West to the March, 2022 City Council meeting. The report approved by City Council recommended that City Council adopt recommendations contained in a Confidential Attachment and authorize the public release of specific confidential recommendations. That information is now available.

http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2022.CC41.11 , scroll down to background information.

City Council has accepted the with prejudice settlement offer dated February 28, 2022. The Settlement Proposal is for a mixed-use 8 storey building with three vehicle car share parking spaces. The Settlement offer also includes a contribution of $1,000,000.00 to the City for use in the City’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition (MURA) Program toward acquiring affordable housing in the Parkdale neighbourhood, and a contribution of $200,000.00 paid to the City as tenant compensation of up to $10,000.00 (Ten Thousand dollars) per eligible tenant, for the benefit of former tenants and occupants of the Subject Property as determined and as administered by the PNLT in consultation with the City. The Settlement Offer is available to review, labelled as Attachment 1, Appendix “A” in background information.

City staff will attend the OLT Settlement Hearing on May 17, 2022 in support of the approved settlement.

If you wish to observe this hearing, please contact Benjamin Waters, Case Coordinator, Planner, (437) 227-6244 or Benjamin.Waters@ontario.ca to obtain the videoconference link for hearing PL200567.
 
Site Plan Application filed:

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app.toronto.ca

Application Details

app.toronto.ca app.toronto.ca
 
New renderings are updated in the database. The project information is also updated. The overall building height changed from 30.78m to 29.95m. The total unit count changed from 78 units to 95 units. Finally, the total parking space count was reduced from 3 parking to 2 parking.

Renderings are taken from the architectural plan via Site Plan Approval!
 

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