City to consult with 'blindsided' Old East Village BIA about proposal to redevelop 3 municipal parking lots into housing

A council committee recommends temporarily parking a proposal to redevelop three municipal lots in the Old East Village until a pair of stakeholder groups have been properly consulted.

On Tuesday, the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) debated a report by civic administration that recommends spending up to $137,000 on a detailed investigation of five municipal parking lots to determine if they can be redeveloped into high-density housing that includes garages with public parking.

Three of the parking lots are in the Old East Village, two others are near the intersection of Horton Street and Ridout Street.

On Monday, General Manager of the Old East Village BIA Kevin Morrison told CTV News, “I kind of feel blindsided. I would have appreciated the common courtesy from the mayor to get in touch with me."

Morrison also raised a number of questions and concerns on behalf of area businesses.

At Tuesday's committee meeting Coun. Susan Stevenson questioned city staff about the process that narrowed 19 parking lots down to five on a priority list, “Was there any consideration to involve the Old East Village business district in the planning given that this list was available since May 27?"

In early January Mayor Josh Morgan used his strong-mayor powers to direct city staff to evaluate municipal lots for their redevelopment potential and present the results in a report to council.

Responding to Stevenson's concerns, Morgan told members of SPPC that he would support referring the three lots in OEV back to civic administration for consultation with both the BIA and Community Association.

"Take some time to get some information and come back with something that might be a little more focused. That might meet the needs of the community a little better,” he said. "The intent here is to try to open up opportunities — it's not to create unforeseen challenges for parts of the city."

The referral was unanimously supported by the committee.

The two lots near Horton and Ridout streets were advanced for further investigation and the preparation of a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking developers interested in building on the sites.

At the same time, the committee unanimously endorsed an amendment by Coun. Hadleigh McAlister aimed at speeding up construction of housing on any of the proposed locations by encouraging modular construction techniques.

Modular construction fabricates components off-site to shorten the timeline to build higher-density housing.

"This is a golden opportunity for us to look at the building techniques themselves and (specifically) modular in terms of the speed of getting housing constructed," McAlister told CTV News after the meeting. "I think we really need to look at that. I know other municipalities have and they've seen some success."

His amendment also received unanimous support.

Locations of the five parking lots on the priority list

• 641 Queens Ave. (Old East Village)
• 434 Elizabeth St. (Old East Village)
• 84 Horton St. (Horton and Ridout)
• 199 Ridout St. (Horton and Ridout)
• 824 Dundas St. (Old East Village)

The next step for the two lots at Horton and Ridout streets is an examination of utility servicing, soil contamination, and parking utilization.

Since the city would be supplying the land and potentially stacking incentive programs, the higher-density residential developments would be expected to include at least 10 per cent affordable housing.

Council will make a final decision about referring the three parking lots for community consultation and encouraging modular construction techniques on Sept. 24.