The Toronto Parking Authority has voted unanimously to stay the wrecking ball on a future Green P site that critics argued could be better used for affordable housing.
Following a request from the mayor to reconsider the plan to bulldoze several low-rise buildings to make way for surface parking lot at the corner of Eglinton Ave. W. and Caledonia Rd., the board agreed Tuesday to ask for a city review of the site’s affordable housing potential before moving forward.
“We’ll take a look at the site and come up with something better,” Councillor Brad Bradford told CTV News Toronto.
“When we have city assets, we need to be planning in the public’s interest and certainly sometimes that’s parking, but it’s also housing.”
The city had purchased the properties several years ago with a plan to build 24 surface parking spots to offset the street parking lost by the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
But housing advocates maintained the prime property along the new transit line would be better served as a site for dozens, if not hundreds, of new affordable rentals, saying an underground parking lot could still be built below any new housing.
A sign advertising the Green P lot is seen at the potential location. (CTV News Toronto)
“We have a housing crisis, we don't have a parking crisis,” housing advocate Mark Richardson told CTV Toronto.
The parking authority has now officially asked CreateTO, the city's realty agency, to include 2204-2212 Eglinton Ave. W. in its review of city-owned assets as part of the city’s affordable housing strategy. An update on the site is expected in September.
