East
Bayfront
“Number one, who is going to draw the names of the 50 or 75 lucky
people
that are going to live on the lake?”
—Councillor Doug Ford
Situated south-east of Canary Lands, East Bayfront will be built by
Tridel and will sit beside Lake Ontario. There will be 1,800
condominium residences built on 13 acres of land.
To spark redevelopment, Toronto sold several parcels of city land to a
group, including Tridel, to create the mixed-use neighbourhood of East
Bayfront: commercial, retail, condos and rental. The deal reserved two
parcels on the eastern fringe for affordable units — expected to come
on stream in 10 to 15 years.
City council’s plan for the area demands that 20 per cent
of housing there be set aside for affordable units, so that the
waterfront will not be the sole preserve of the well-off.
Apparently, some of the developers are appealing the city’s 20%
affordable housing target to the Ontario Municipal Board.
Pilot
project
In late October 2013, Toronto’s affordable housing committee approved a
pilot project to buy 20-25% of the units in a new condo development, Aqualina at Bayside in
the new East Bayfront neighbourhood, The 80
units will become affordable rental apartments operated by Artscape.
Affordable
rental units in a waterfront condo
As much as $15-million is expected to come from federal and provincial
governments, with $7 million from the city in direct grants and a
further $7.6 million in indirect contributions. Artscape will take out
a $7 million mortgage that will be paid from the rent money.
Councillor Ana Bailao, chair of the affordable housing committee,
heralded the pilot project as a creative way to help address an
affordable housing shortage.
This isn’t creative as this
“poor-door” arrangement exists in
England and the United States and soon will be in a new condo in
Vancouver. –editor
Segregated
units
(Poor door)
The affordable apartments, to be located on eight floors along the
north and west side of the 11- to 12-storey condo complex, will
function as a separate entity in the building with their own lobby,
elevator, roof-top amenity space and parking.
City staff state that the units would be designed with a “modesty
standard” in mind. The one-, two- and three-bedroom
affordable housing units are also larger than the planned condos.
Rent
will be 20% less than the average market rate.
Artscape's
role
The city will own the units and lease them out to Artscape who will
select the tenants and will manage the units.
The
location is questioned
Critics on the political right, including Mayor Ford and his brother,
councillor Doug Ford, question the building of affordable rental units
on Toronto's waterfront especially because some of the units will have
waterfront views.
They think that government funded affordable units should be built
elsewhere, where exactly, they do not say.
Yet in Vancouver where the Sequel 138,
a condo development with 18 social housing units is being built, the
lefties have protested because they claim that putting a new condo in
the poor downtown east-end neighbourhood will drive up rents which will
push the small independent businesses and the low income people out.
The middle-class city planners and professional social workers can't
please the critics on either side.
What
about the condo owners?
There have been a handful of affordable rental units included in a few
downtown condos but nothing of this size has yet has been built in
Toronto.
Will these rental units be a separate non-profit corporation that has
limited shared facilities with the condo or will the 80 units be
incorporated within the larger condominium corporation? This is an
important point.
If the city owns approximately 36% of a corporation’s units,
then the city would have enough votes to have political control of the
corporation especially if the condo has a lot of absentee owners who
rent their units.
If
the segregated rental units are a separate corporation, then they may
both belong to a shared facilities corporation and that could cause
problems.
Any potential buyers would be wise to carefully read the Declaration
and Disclosure documents before signing a sales agreement.
Will
it be approved?
"Congratulations
to all of the partners involved in making affordable housing happen in
the new East Bayfront community. The approval of the Bayside Pilot
Project affirms Toronto's commitment to city residents having the
opportunity to live in all neighbourhoods."
—Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly
The project was approved by city council on 10 June 2014.
Should Poor Doors Be Banned? Aqualina Bayside Stirs the Waters.
By Tracy Ruddell
Condos.ca (for the full article)
June 1, 2015
The developers have partnered with the City, who in turn have brought
on Artscape, a non-profit arts organization, to manage 80 affordable
rental units in one section of the building for artists to live and
work in. In theory, a great idea for a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income
artistic community. The controversial bit? The low-income residents
will enter by a different door.
These “poor doors” have been used in New York condos where they faced
similar public outrage. So much so that the mayor of NYC is considering
banning the practice altogether. Toronto city council is receiving
pressure to do the same.
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