Toronto launches pilot project build rental housing using mass-timber, other low-carbon materials
The City of Toronto is launching a pilot project that will see 100 housing units built using mass timber and other low-carbon materials.
Mayor John Tory announced the project back in April. The project will be located on a city-owned site at the corner of Dundas Street West. The site is currently a parking lot.
The project, which is the first of its kind in Toronto, is being designed to the highest tier of Toronto Green Standard Version 4. The development will see no on-site fossil fuel use, maximize on-site renewable electricity, and use mass timber and other low-carbon materials as much as possible. The goal is for the building to be near net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
“The pilot program announced today will demonstrate not only the commitment we have to becoming a greener city but that this approach can allow help build cost-effective affordable housing,” said Tory. “Using innovative and modern ideas like mass timber construction will help us deliver high quality designs and buildings that will contribute to our goal of net zero emissions by 2040.”
The city hopes to use the pilot project as a model for a new, scalable and affordable housing solution that can be replicated across the city.
Benefits of the approach include: faster construction timelines; reduced construction costs; reduced greenhouse gas and material (embodied carbon) emissions from the housing, transportation, and construction sectors; and improved quality of life for future residents, all while optimizing the density of affordable housing on targeted City-owned real estate assets.
The pilot program will focus primarily on mid-rise development but can also include analyzing both missing middle (housing types such as laneway houses, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhouses, and low-rise apartment buildings) and tall building development through a mass timber form.
“The proposal to turn a city-owned parking lot at 1117 Dundas Street West into a new form of sustainable, mid-rise affordable housing is exactly the type of project Toronto needs right now,” said Spadina-Fort York Councillor Joe Cressy. “We must take advantage of every opportunity to build new sustainable and affordable housing, and that includes unlocking the potential of municipally owned properties. This is truly a new model for sustainable, mid-rise affordable. Now, let’s do this right across the city to make our communities vibrant, diverse and accessible – now and into the future.”
City staff have been directed to report back to the Planning and Housing Committee in the fourth quarter of 2023 on the results of the pilot program. A full set of recommendations to establish a new permanent Mass Timber Affordable Housing Program could follow after that.