Community Council adopts proposal for 39-storey residential building at 6 Dawes Rd.

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

Members of the public at yesterday’s Toronto and East York Community Council meeting continued to express concerns about affordability, lack of TTC and GO Transit infrastructure, and minimal amenity space to accommodate a proposed 39-storey residential building that will be located at 6 Dawes Rd., south of Danforth Avenue and just north of the railway tracks and the Danforth GO Station.

“Developers are scrambling to pivot to building rentals,” said local resident Adam Smith during his deputation at the Nov. 27 Community Council meeting.  

“The 6 Dawes development went from a reasonable 17-storey condo to a massive 39-storey rental tower. A rental building takes far longer than a condo to turn a profit, so the only way to satisfy investors and lenders is to build much larger and charge higher rents.”

Toronto East York Community Council dealt with a number of different development projects across the East Toronto area before final consideration at the upcoming City of Toronto Council meeting starting Dec. 16.

During yesterday’s Community Council meeting, two local residents made deputations to voice their concerns about the Dawes Road project’s lack of affordable units in what they described as an “oversaturated rental market,” as well as a lack of transportation infrastructure, amenity space, and an overarching focus on maximizing private developer’s profits.

“The only rationale that explains why 17-storeys is now required to be 39-storeys is that 6 Dawes Road is not about housing people, it’s about profits for the housing industry,” said Smith.

According to the developers Fitzrovia Inc. and Bousfields Inc. (an urban planning company working with the developer), only three of 452 proposed units will be designated as “affordable” within the building, which equates to less than one per cent of the total units.

In a previous community consultation meeting to discuss the project, Fitzrovia representatives mentioned that 30 per cent of Toronto’s population would be able to consider rental costs at the site affordable, a fact revisited by Smith in his deputation at yesterday’s Community Council meeting.

“At the community consultation, the developer admitted it will be unaffordable to 70 per cent of Torontonians,” said Smith.

“The average income for a Torontonian is $62,000, and market rent, to be affordable at 30 per cent of income requires making $116,000. With the condo market crashing, plenty of supply and prices coming down, why would the top 30 per cent of income spend their money renting when they can own?”

Also discussed at Community Council was a development proposal at 2451 Danforth Ave. (currently Sobeys), where no units are expected to be affordable. No deputations were made regarding that proposal, and it was adopted and moved on for consideration at the upcoming Toronto Council meeting.

The proposal for the Sobey’s site is for 13- and 29-storey mixed-use building connected by a two- and eight-storey podium and consisting of 620 residential units.

Both the 6 Dawes Rd. and the Sobey’s site proposals are part of intensification taking place in the area around Main Street and Danforth Avenues north of the railroad tracks.

The Dawes Road proposal is part of a broader project approved in August 2022 as part of a settlement at the Ontario Land Tribunal, which includes four towers with heights of 29, 39, 37, and 17-storeys.

With three of the buildings already under construction on the strip of land directly north of the Danforth GO station and east of Main Street, the developer is proposing to increase the height of the approved 17-storey building on the east section of the 6 Dawes Rd. site to 39 storeys.

Local resident Jenny Worden said the height increase will put a strain on an area with few amenity spaces to accommodate the increased pedestrian traffic.

“From where I stand, on the ground, surrounded by tall buildings, the path forward doesn’t seem to lead to a neighbourhood with the amenities that support or complete a well-served community,” said Worden during her deputation to Community Council.

Worden mentioned that an earlier settlement to acquire the site included a $7.3 million contribution towards a new community recreation centre, six affordable rental units secured for 99 years, and a minimum of 1,400 square metres of public park space, which would replace the “initially proposed six-storey on-site community centre.”

“Today, with the additional 22-storeys requested, there is still no built community centre, nor is there a confirmed timeline for a community centre rebuild,” said Worden. “We don’t even really know where Main Square Community Centre is going to go, because it can’t stay where it is.”

She also mentioned that, despite the city having little control over the Ministry of Education and their ability to rebuild Secord Public School, lack of public spaces will continue to burden what is an already overcrowded area.

Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford said he had met with Secord Now, an advocacy group working to request improvements to Secord Public School, to confirm the Toronto District School Board’s “willingness to work with Toronto Parks and Recreation to secure a new Secord Community Centre.

He also mentioned that, as part of the Community Benefits Charges (CBCs), the city is only able to ask for a maximum of four per cent of the value of the land for eligible new developments.

Bradford confirmed that the city has secured $8.3 million from the community benefits, and questioned whether the money should be put towards more affordable housing, or to rebuild the community centre.

“If you were to divide up that four per cent, that community benefit charge, what we’re able to secure when the development comes in. What do you think is more important? Affordable housing or a community centre?” asked Bradford.

In his closing statements to address deputants, Bradford said he supported city staff’s recommendation for the additional new affordable units he worked to negotiate in the proposal, and that the site of 6 Dawes Rd. is a location that should be encouraging more density, given its proximity to a transit hub.

“All of us here know from the outset that the Dawes Road corridor is changing very quickly. There’s a lot of growth happening, there’s no question about that,” said Bradford

“Despite some of the commentary from the deputations that we heard today, I would suggest to folks that this is precisely where you would want to encourage growth, which is next to a subway station, on top of a GO station, and also at the terminus of the Gerrard streetcar.”

Bradford said he’s “happy to get shovels in the ground” for the project.

The 6 Dawes Rd. proposal was adopted by Toronto and East York Community Council and will now go to Toronto Council’s December meeting for final consideration.

For more information about the development proposal at 6 Dawes Rd., please go to https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/application-details/?id=5561742&pid=271347&title=6-DAWES-RD.