A provincial order that took effect last week will cap the number of affordable housing units in the transit-oriented community planned for Toronto’s East Harbour.
The East Harbour project, on the east side of the Don near the river mouth, will have over 4,000 residential units when complete, according to developer Cadillac Fairview and the province. It will also have its own station on the forthcoming Ontario Line.
In April 2022, Ontario’s minister of housing issued a minister’s zoning order (MZO) to speed up development of the East Harbour area, part of Queen’s Park’s push to get more new housing built near transit stations.
But this week, the province published an amendment to the MZO that overrides the city’s inclusionary zoning bylaw by dictating that there can be “no minimum requirement for affordable rental or ownership housing units on the lands.”
By way of explanation, a provincial regulatory decision states that Cadillac Fairview and the City of Toronto “have committed to delivering affordable housing through a separate agreement."
That agreement requires Cadillac Fairview to provide at least 215 affordable rental housing units in the East Harbour complex, equalling about five per cent of the total build.
The site was formerly the Lever Brothers soap factory, which opened in 1890 as part of the industrial area that once dominated South Riverdale. The factory closed in 2009 after a 14-month strike. The land was later sold.
After changing hands several times, it was purchased by Cadillac Fairview in 2019.
In the area where the future East Harbour development resides, the city’s inclusionary zoning bylaw would ordinarily require at least six per cent of the total gross floor area for residential uses to be set aside for affordable rental housing units, or eight per cent for affordable ownership housing units.
Despite the agreement with Cadillac Fairview, Toronto City Council adopted a resolution right before the MZO was issued in April 2022 directing the city manager to continue to advocate for more than 215 affordable housing units in the East Harbour.
The province’s amendment this week appears to quash that goal.
A spokesperson for Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, whose ministry requested the MZO amendment, reiterated that Toronto's inclusionary zoning rules are being overridden because the city and its "building partner" Cadillac Fairview already have a separate deal.
"MZOs remain an important tool to get critical local projects moving at the pace that Ontarians need and deserve," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the city's planning and housing committee voted on Thursday to defer a debate on a staff recommendation to reallocate some land in the area from employment zoning to mixed zoning, which would shift the balance of land use in the area towards residential.
