Item - 2019.RA7.4

The Board of Directors of CreateTO:

1. Directed the Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO to include the following as part of the Housing Now business case:

a. a summary of the results of the community consultation, with local councillor input;

b. the planning context;

c. context on City Building initiatives;

d. a breakdown of levels of affordability and proposed terms of the transaction; and

e. how the business case addresses maximum attainability of affordable units. 

The Senior Vice President, Development, CreateTO; the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat, City of Toronto; and the Project Manager, Strategic Initiatives, City Planning, City of Toronto gave a presentation on Housing Now Update.

This report provides an update on the implementation of the Housing Now Initiative including the development of project concepts and business cases for individual properties.

Following the retention of multi-disciplinary consultants for each site, CreateTO has been supporting City Planning in expediting the City-initiated rezoning process. CreateTO and City staff, in collaboration with local councillors, have completed the first round of public engagement on the first four properties (140 Merton St., 777 Victoria Park Ave, 705 Warden Ave., and 50 Wilson Heights Blvd).

Additionally through ongoing discussions with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), CreateTO staff are developing business cases for the four priority sites which along with the proposed marketing programs will be submitted to the Board for approval in September 2019.

In November and December 2019, City staff will present development concepts and recommendations related to the zoning and policy frameworks for each of the four sites.

CreateTO is in the process of retaining a broker of record in July 2019 to support the marketing of the first four sites starting in parallel with the planning reports.

Additional information on the consultation, reporting and marketing schedule for the four properties is included in Attachment 2. The seven remaining sites will be marketed in 2020 as shown in Attachment 1. 

The Housing Now steering committee will continue to work with local councillors, communities and the Board to ensure the implementation process remains on track and additional sites are advanced to rezoning and marketing in the coming months.  

City and CreateTO staff will report to the CreateTO Board at two key milestones for each property:

-   Prior to the market offering process, CreateTO Board will review for approval the business case and the proposed market offering process; and

-   Prior to finalizing sale/lease agreement, CreateTO Board will review for approval the terms and conditions for the proposed agreements with the successful proponents.