City taps brakes on parking lot to housing plan in OEV— but full speed ahead in SoHo

Three municipal parking lots remain candidates for redevelopment into housing, but the next steps will occur at two different paces.

On Tuesday, the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) heard from stakeholders in the Old East Village (OEV) who want public consultation and further discussion with key stakeholders before deciding if most of the lot at 641 Queens Ave. should be redeveloped into a mix of low and medium-density housing.

Kevin Morrison of the OEV Business Improvement Area told the committee, “The BIA supports more affordable housing, that’s not the question. However, how we get there is what really matters. If we’re going to do this, we need to do it right.”

Morrison asked the committee to defer any substantial decisions about 641 Queens Ave. until after public consultation this summer.

However, Coun. Sam Trosow said he was satisfied with proceeding to next steps before completing the first round of public consultation, “Build into this process, which is going to take a long time, many different decision points with consultation.”

Morrison expressed other concerns including if the remaining parking lot would be large enough to accommodate tour buses visiting the Banting House National Historic Site, and that the lot was deemed “underutilized” because daily usage of spots has recently been about 51 per cent.

He argued that as revitalization of the business district continues, commercial vacancies will decline and the drive up the demand for parking.

Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis agreed that more time is needed to assess the future parking requirements, “A 50 per cent more or less parking utilization doesn’t seem like a very high amount, but I also appreciate the comment that there’s a 40 per cent commercial vacancy right now.”

The assessment of municipal parking lots for developability into housing was launched by Mayor Josh Morgan in early 2024 by utilizing his Strong-Mayor Powers.

“It’s actually quite a complicated site, as you can see with the land assembly, and it’s probably relatively restricted in the amount of density that you could put in there,” Morgan told council colleagues.

The next steps to make the parking lot shovel ready for developers would include an archeological investigation, land assembly, traffic impact study and geotechnical work.

Staff estimate that work would cost $555,000 to complete.

SPPC members voted to defer a decision to make the parking lot shovel ready until the end of this year, to allow time for more consultation and to determines if there is even going to be interest from developers.

“Let’s slow this down,” the mayor told CTV News after the meeting. “Let’s take some time to consult with the community more and let’s do a Request for Expressions of Interest to see if there’s even an interest in developing that lot.”

However, it remains full speed ahead for the two municipal lots in the SoHo neighbourhood just north of the Thames River (84 Horton St. and 199 Ridout St.)

Morgan expressed excitement about advancing the lots directly to a Request for Proposals for “as-is” offers from developers by the end of 2025.

Three submissions have already been made, ranging between 450 units and 600 units, with between 10 per cent and 20 per cent being affordable housing.

Each proposal also includes between 300 and 330 public parking spaces.

The city will seek as-is offers because soils in the area are contaminated with coal tar left behind by the London Coal Gasification Site that operated from 1850 until 1930.

The mayor explained his excitement to proceed to the next step, “We got a little more work to do because it’s a contaminated site, (but) if we were able to change that into residential development, that would be phenomenal for the area.”