Paving over parking: Toronto City Hall green-lights Green P redevelopment

Toronto City Council has paved the way to converting surface parking lots into housing sites, in a bid to unlock more municipal land for affordable homes.

In a vote of 21-1 Thursday, councillors rubber-stamped a review of more than a hundred Green P lots identified by staff as suitable sites for residential and mixed-use projects.

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“The people of Toronto need us to leave no stone unturned when it comes to building desperately-needed affordable housing,” Mayor Olivia Chow said during the debate.

City staff had previously determined that of the 130 parking lots that could be transformed, 74 are located within a 10-minute walk from higher-order transit. They have not publicly identified the locations of those sites.

“The shift away from parking accommodation to housing and community service accommodation at these parking lots could provide a significant pipeline of City-owned lands to meet the City's housing and other goals,” wrote the deputy city manager for corporate services, David Jollimore, in a report.

“I would suggest that, you know, a surface parking lot is not always the highest and best land use,” Coun. Brad Bradford, vice-chair of the city’s planning and housing committee, said after the vote Thursday.

“We're facing a housing crisis, and one of the best things that the City of Toronto can do, in addition to expediting our approval process and reforming our zoning, is take a look at City assets and under-performing city assets.”

However, Coun. Parthi Kandavel, who represents Scarborough Southwest, warned of the impact to suburban commuters if lots near transit hubs are removed.

“In my neighborhood, it's a 20-minute walk to a bus stop, a 10-minute wait for the bus, another 20 minutes to get to Victoria Park and Warden Stations,” he said. “To add 50 minutes by removing a parking space, or parking lot, is ridiculous when you talk about livability.”

“We’re essentially saying we don’t want to do parking any more at these spots,” said Etobicoke Centre Coun. Stephen Holyday, who was the lone vote against the plan. “I see this is as another sign of the war on the car.”

“It irritates me to no end that we're talking about, you know, it's ‘cars versus housing, or people,’” Coun. Chris Moise said. “That's not the case.”

“We are in a housing crisis. We need to look outside the box to make sure that we house people.”

City staff will now undertake a review of all the off-street, municipally-owned parking facilities that could serve as future housing sites and identify priorities and timelines by the end of the year.