Policy Review: Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (Missing Middle)
By Naama Blonder and Josh Papernick Finding and designing development solutions to unlock the City’s “Neighbourhood” areas has been a major focus at Smart Density. I have been a strong advocate for Missing Middle housing and rethinking how the City can take advantage of its land, and was very excited to see this document being […]
10 reasons to choose Modular Construction: Webinar Recording + Summary
10 reasons to choose Modular Construction: Webinar Recording + Summary As part of our Educational Webinar Series, we hosted a special webinar led by Chris Smith, a Project Manager and Temo Cruz, Prefabrication & Modular Coordinator at ED Modular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OKPGgToNcQ&feature=emb_logo Below is a summary of the Webinar and 10 reasons to choose Modular Construction! […]
Financial Incentives for Affordable Housing
Financial Incentives for Affordable Housing Last week, the City of Toronto has released the 2020 Open Door Call for applications. What are the different programs, incentive tools and streams that exist today in order to accelerate affordable housing construction? Here’s a summary of the municipal, provincial and federal tools: Through our Affordable Housing Centre, we […]
12 Little Anecdotes from ‘Happy City’ by Charles Montgomery
12 Little Anecdotes from ‘Happy City’ by Charles Montgomery Written by Josh Papernick 1. A Swedish study found that people who endure more than a forty-five-minute commute were 40 percent more likely to divorce 2. A person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as […]
Infill Development in Apartment Neighbourhoods
Infill Development in Apartment Neighbourhoods The Official Plan provides criteria for infill development within Apartment Neighbourhoods. Compatible infill development may be permitted on sites with existing apartment buildings if they improve the existing site conditions. The major requirements are as follows: Compatibility Be compatible in scale (height and massing) to the existing buildings on the […]
The Yellow Belt – Local Empowerment Gone Wild
Recently, there is finally discussion in Toronto about the Yellow Belt. This brilliant term was coined by Urban Planner Gil Meslin in 2016 to liken the severe restrictions on development in most of the area of the GTA, in all areas designated as “neighbourhoods” (coloured in yellow in the municipal official plans), to the restrictions […]
Dutch Urban Design – What can Canadian cities adopt?
Dutch Urban Design – What can Canadian cities adopt? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvgxcLZodw&feature=emb_logo When it comes to urban design, the Dutch seem to get it right. Cities in the Netherlands are livable and vibrant. Single-family housing is not common and their streets are not designed for the car. Canadian cities experience unprecedented growth and a housing shortage at […]
An Immigrant’s Thoughts on Housing
An Immigrant’s Thoughts on Housing Happy Newcomer Day, Canada! Earlier this year, we received our Canadian Citizenship and I would like to offer some thoughts about Housing – by one of Canada’s newest citizens. In almost any large city, families who live in central areas live in condos and apartments. In fact, outside of North […]
Toronto’s Missing Middle: 11 answers to your most-pressing questions
Written by Naama Blonder | Edited by Josh Papernick In July 2019, Mayor Tory and Deputy Mayor Ana Bailao motioned to review a timeline to increase housing options and planning permissions in areas of Toronto’s Official Plan (OP) designated as Neighbourhoods. The original date to report back to Council was Q4 of 2019, however, as […]
Could COVID-19 be the best thing that happened to the traditional Open House?
Could COVID-19 be the best thing that happened to the traditional Open House? CreateTO and City Planning have held its first-ever online-only Open House yesterday, for the HousingNOW revised proposal for 705 Warden St. COVID-19 forced us to rethink and adjust many of our daily routines, and in this specific case of the Open House, […]