Its a nice addition and all, but with the level of development going on and planned for in this area, I'm not sure why they stopped at 3 storeys. Surely some additional community space could have been included here? Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, though that seems to be the theme with this whole site.
Probably should have been much bigger although I bet the neighbors would have complained.
 
Its a nice addition and all, but with the level of development going on and planned for in this area, I'm not sure why they stopped at 3 storeys. Surely some additional community space could have been included here? Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, though that seems to be the theme with this whole site.

I'm pretty sure you'd be hard pressed to find a Community Centre in Toronto that takes up more than 3 floors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Toronto_recreation_centres With that said:
- These Community Centres WERE funded often via pooling of Section 37 Community Benefit money from multiple redevelopment projects,... typically from 5, 10, 20+ condo towers with 2,000-5,000 units,...
- While Section 37 Community Benefit money can only be spent in the Ward where that redevelopment happened,.... when Community Centre is built in one part of the Ward - the opportunity cost is another part of the Ward won't get Community Centre or some other Section 37 Community Benefit facility! Like-wise, when building an even larger Community Centre here,... the opportunity cost is another part of the Ward would not see Section 37 Community Benefit facilities.
- Recently, Provincial Government eliminated Section 37 Community Benefit Developer Fee/Charges; new system of "Community Benefit Charge" can only gets about quarter to a third of what the previous "Section 37 Community Benefit" did
- So instead of previous 10-20+ condo towers,... now you'll need 30-80 condo towers to generate enough "Community Benefit Charges" money to build a decent Community Centre,... it'll take a lot longer to pool/save that amount of "Community Benefit Charges" money,... it'll take a lot of political will over multiple terms! Translation: With more entities fighting over fewer "Community Benefit Charges" money,... good luck getting another Community Centre built!
 
- So instead of previous 10-20+ condo towers,... now you'll need 30-80 condo towers to generate enough "Community Benefit Charges" money to build a decent Community Centre,... it'll take a lot longer to pool/save that amount of "Community Benefit Charges" money,... it'll take a lot of political will over multiple terms! Translation: With more entities fighting over fewer "Community Benefit Charges" money,... good luck getting another Community Centre built!
…which is why the City of Toronto is planning a 48% increase in the development charges per unit, so that the City still has the ability to build infrastructure.

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…which is why the City of Toronto is planning a 48% increase in the development charges per unit, so that the City still has the ability to build infrastructure.

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Imagine the if the City actually raised property taxes and paid for such things out the normal capital budget process like they used to.......

a 1% (Absolute) property tax increase across all classes, would raise ~50M per year; which is 500M over 10 years.

That's a lot of high quality recreation centres.

Of course, I would argue for more than 1% increase to address both the operating and capital needs of the City.
 


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Imagine the if the City actually raised property taxes and paid for such things out the normal capital budget process like they used to.......

a 1% (Absolute) property tax increase across all classes, would raise ~50M per year; which is 500M over 10 years.

That's a lot of high quality recreation centres.

Of course, I would argue for more than 1% increase to address both the operating and capital needs of the City.

I agree in principle but to me development charges actually seem like a logical way to raise capital for such projects; Lots of new development in the area, have some capital for a new community center. Whereas property taxes (which I agree should increase, though only on the residential side) should fund the operational costs, which unlike the capital side, are never ending. If anything, where the city does a terrible job today I would argue is indeed the operational side (including things like maintenance), a new community center only stays shinny for so long before they deteriorate.
 

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