We need to make out cities and towns more family friendly. This missing middle is a great first step back in the right direction.
Almost all new large towers/buildings in north america prioritize bachelor’s units 1 and 2 bedroom units. Trying to find a well priced 3 or 4 bedroom in a “lively” downtown center, close to transit and work, with plenty of schooling in the area is almost impossible.
Here’s a good article talking about why developers don’t provide adequate family units.
This together with zoning requirements in north america is pushing most cities and developers to only cater towards large towers or single family housing.
I don’t need schooling. I need that third bedroom so my mom can come live with us because senior care is the cost of another whole mortgage and being regular humans we just don’t have it. So, put it near a hospital or in a 15-min area, but I don’t need shrieking kids (gen-x kids remember being told to only scream like they’re dying when they’re actually dying) interrupting work all day.
The pearl clutchers love to screech about fires and safety, ignoring the fact fire suppression tech has advanced significantly in the time point access blocks were banned.
The development looks nice. But don’t let developers build it. The city has to build them themself. Otherwise, it will be like anywhere else pushing the poorer outside of the town.
Remove zoning restrictions and someone will build. Give them the incentive by making what you want to build easy and most will jump on it instead of going through a 5 year long rezoning process to build a 30 story tower.
Agreed, Toronto zoning is not really the most thoughtful. Anything one parcel east or west of Yonge Street for example is zoned in most cases as 2 or three story single family home (as long as it’s not intersecting another main avenue that is.
That’s pretty much all of Canada, even our biggest cities are too scared to zone properly in fear that they’ll have to actual govern and educate their electorate, easier to just assume the next guy will.
I’ve been a public servant for three years and all I’ve taken away from my short time is that the public can’t be trusted to do anything to benefit society.
There is a great video that shows how most north american cities struggle with this “missing middle”. It also shows how some cities are starting to change this slowly. There are parts in Toronto this was implemented in the 1940s but we have slowly forgotten these parts of the city.
Yes please! This is what we need in Toronto. I find neighbourhoods like this would attract more families willing to live and work in the city. To many families leave Toronto to live in the suburbs.
Developments like this can also spur the need for more transit options around Toronto. Things like Trams/LRTs and keep business in the city.
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