Community pop-up meeting Thursday on city development plan for Green P parking lot off Danforth Avenue
By AMARACHI AMADIKE, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The City of Toronto is hosting a community pop-up meeting for a planned development on the land now occupied by a Green P parking lot at 72 Amroth Ave. on Thursday, Mar. 14.
The meeting will take place at the Danforth Mennonite Church (2174 Danforth Ave.) from noon till 2 p.m.
Part of the Beaches-East York Pilot Project, this development marks the city’s eastward expansion of the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON) program.
The proposal for the Green P parking lot space at 72 Amroth Ave., just south of Danforth Avenue and one block east of Woodbine Avenue (behind the Value Village) is for a six-storey building that faces Amroth Avenue as well as two three-storey buildings. These will comprise 34 units and 18 bicycle parking spaces.
The EHON program aims to create more housing options in residential areas and bolster Toronto’s current batch of missing middle properties.
According to the City of Toronto, missing middle is described as “low-rise buildings with multiple units that are compatible with the scale and form of existing single detached dwellings in established, low-rise residential neighbourhoods”.
However, some housing experts, such as Melissa Goldstein, criticize the EHON initiative for its lack of affordable housing requirements.
“This is a strategy that is more likely to worsen housing affordability and housing instability in the immediate and medium term by encouraging real estate speculation and the redevelopment of affordable, rent protected units and the eviction of their tenants, while increasing the supply of market rate units without any rent protections,” said Goldstein in a report which she presented at Toronto City Hall last year.
EHON, she said, could inflate land values by increasing the profit potential of individual properties.
The meeting is set for Thursday, March 14, on plans for the Green P parking lot at 72 Amroth Ave., behind the Value Village on Danforth Avenue.
During Thursday’s pop-up meeting, those attending will have the opportunity to voice their opinions. They will be joined by members of CreateTO and city staff who will share more information about the project for 72 Amroth Ave. – such as preliminary design concepts – and answer questions.
This image depicts what the proposal for the Green P parking lot will look like as it faces Amroth Avenue.
For more information about the community engagement, contact CreateTO’s Manager of Community Engagement, Asha-Keyf Dahir at adahir@createto.ca or 437-239-5214.
– Amarachi Amadike is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for Beach Metro Community News. His reporting is funded by the Government of Canada through its Local Journalism Initiative.
