In 2017, Toronto's housing agency CreateTO put out a call for proposals to develop a 20-hectare former quarry in Birch Cliff, Scarborough.Supplied
A new development on formerly city-owned land in Toronto offers a stark contrast to the local government’s evolving approach to affordability, amid a push for density and a mayoral by-election in which housing remains a top issue.
The city’s CreateTO housing agency put out a request for proposal in 2017 to develop a 20-hectare former quarry and landfill in Scarborough, which came with zoning that called for 270 condominium units, a big-box retail outlet, a park and 30 units of Habitat for Humanity affordable-ownership housing.
Developers DiamondCorp and Kilmer Group worked together on a proposal for the former Birch Cliff Quarry site. Diamond Kilmer Developments won the bid in 2018 but immediately sought a rezoning order to shrink the retail element and create more than a thousand new homes, which the city approved in 2021.
The developer is now marketing the first phase of project, now known as Birchley Park, which will include 868 market-rate condominiums (a mix of townhouses and apartments in mid-rise buildings). Approximately 10 per cent of the housing on the site will be affordable, including 58 Habitat for Humanity ownership townhouses and approximately 62 affordable rental apartments (half of a 124-unit building the city intends to build on quarry land Diamond Kilmer is conveying back to the city as part of the new deal).
Former Toronto mayor John Tory won a second term in office in 2018 after a campaign in which he promised to get 40,000 affordable rental units built over 12 years through deals with private-sector builders on city-owned land.Supplied
“This site really does achieve a tremendous amount of city building objectives,” said Ty Diamond, president of Diamond Kilmer, which purchased the land from the city in 2020. “When this thing was started, there were no affordable rental units in the plan.”
However, housing advocates view the development as a lost opportunity.
“We’re living with the sins of the past: the way the city used to deal with its surplus lands, until 2019, was not about optimizing affordable housing outcomes, it was about getting the land developed and not upsetting the neighbours too much,” said Mark Richardson, a member of the volunteer group HousingNowTO.
HousingNowTO has pressed the city’s planning and development arms to match the lofty rhetoric of previous election campaigns that promised thousands of affordable housing units.
“In summer of 2018 and more seriously in summer 2020, the city had a serious ‘Come to Jesus’ moment on their affordable housing methodology,” Mr. Richardson said. “Prior to those dates, it was a nice to have. Now it is a more core part of their expectation when it comes to city lands.”
Former mayor John Tory won a second term in office in 2018 after a campaign in which he promised to get 40,000 affordable rental units built over 12 years through deals with private-sector builders on city-owned land. This pledge eventually became the Housing Now program. At the time, Mr. Tory’s main rival was former city planning head Jennifer Keesmaat, who promised 100,000 homes in 10 years.
In the campaign ahead of the June 26 by-election to replace Mr. Tory, Olivia Chow, who has been leading public opinion polls since entering the race, is pledging to have the city do the development work itself to build 25,000 new rental homes in the next eight years.
Some housing advocates view the Birchley Park development as a missed opportunity. 'We're living with the sins of the past,' said Mark Richardson, a member of the volunteer group HousingNowTO.Supplied
When Housing Now launched in early 2019 with 11 city sites, it had plans to start building as soon as 2020, but its real-world record has been less impressive. There are now 21 sites in the Housing Now pipeline, with close to 3,700 affordable rental apartments planned, but not a single site has begun construction.
Toronto also has no timeline on when it will build the rental building on quarry land. Planning for the 124-unit rental project won’t begin until 2024. “Details are still being finalized, but once complete, the city will issue a request for proposals to award the contract to a developer, after which the city will establish project timelines,” city spokesperson Jessamine Luck said in a statement.
The first two phases of Birchley Park’s condos are expected to arrive in 2026 and work is under way now on the geothermal heating and cooling system that will service the project.
“Almost the entirety of that project is under $1-million,” Mr. Diamond says of the expected sale prices. With suite sizes ranging from 374 to 950 square feet – selling for “high 11-hundreds” per square foot, according to Mr. Diamond – the price point for apartments in the first two mid-rise buildings and could range between just under $500,000 to about $1.13-million. While those prices aren’t exactly affordable, they are a discount from what you’d find closer to the city’s core.
Mr. Diamond also noted the majority of Birchley’s units will be on the larger side. “We’re a little bit bigger than you’d find in a conventional downtown high-rise, a bit more family friendly.”
Next door is a smaller plot of privately owned quarry land where the Conservatory Group has applied to build a 32-storey building with 367 units. The timeline for that project is up in the air due to a court-ordered dissolution and sale of the group of companies, which has dragged on into its second year with little sign of progress. The court order is part of an acrimonious lawsuit between four brothers who owned the company together.
Mr. Richardson argues that building up the entire quarry site along the lines of Housing Now proposal would add much more affordable housing to the overall mix.
“If the City of Toronto had a time machine and was starting over on 19 hectares of surplus city land in 2020, rather than 2017, there’d be a very different expectations on this site,” Mr. Richardson said.