Toronto wants mid-rise housing, but can we afford it?
Yes, but developers make more money from high-rise, so they’re not into it. I like this idea though, despite it paining me as well as it would transform many great (albeit unaffordable) neighbourhoods:
Expand densification deeper into Toronto’s sleepy, leafy, low-rise neighbourhoods. [Ted Kesik] argues that the city should open up the so-called “yellowbelt” (areas where single-family homes predominate) to allow for fourplexes and other mini-condos to be built. He suggests the return of the so-called Toronto Specials of the 1950s and ‘60s that responded to an earlier wave of immigration would do a lot to let homeowners unlock the value in their land, and create more affordable options for newcomers and new families.
I would also hope that the reforms to the OMB – it’s now the LPAT – might close the door to out-of-control high-rise construction.