Peel proposal would bring significant rental housing to site near Lakeview Village

A Peel Region housing development success story about the East Avenue redevelopment project.

By: Matt Durnan

An affordable housing development proposed for a site near Mississauga’s planned Lakeview Village community would revitalize a currently underutilized site while adding significant housing to it through the development of a seven-storey affordable rental apartment building that would contain 150 rental dwelling units along with ground-level community space.

Peel Region, in partnership with Martinway Developments is proposing to develop an affordable rental apartment building at 958-960 East Avenue in Mississauga on a site that for decades accommodated just two two-storey walk-up buildings containing a total of 30 rental housing units.

Built in 1967, the two buildings that used to sit on the site were demolished in September of 2023. After weighing several different options for redeveloping the site, including considering a mid-rise building, two mid-rise buildings, and some stacked townhouse units, the Region ultimately decided to proceed with developing a single seven-storey building that would bring 120 additional housing units to the site.

Finding the appropriate built form to redevelop on the site posed something of a challenge for the Region due to a number of site constraints, specifically in relation to the presence of significant underground infrastructure tied into the nearby Lakeview Water Treatment Plant.

"The western side [of the site] is effectively all encumbered by underground infrastructure. Immediately south of here is a water treatment plant, so we have some major water mains going north, the same water mains that service all of Peel and York Region," Peel Region project manager Marwan Kassay told NRU.

"So we need to be extremely cautious as to what we do on that western lot. Although the size [of the site] seems plentiful, we're really pushed to a little postage stamp."

Peel Region worked closely with City of Mississauga planning staff on the proposal to include the conveyance to the City of a section of the site that includes a portion of Byngmount Avenue—an east-west street that comes to a dead end at the southwest corner of the East Avenue property. In future, the City of Mississauga intends to extend Byngmount to East Avenue as a multi-modal connection between Montbeck Crescent to the west and East Avenue to the east, running across the south of the site.

The location of the East Avenue site offers a number of advantages to future residents, including its proximity to the Lakeshore Road bus rapid transit (BRT) service, a planned transit line that will span two kilometres along Lakeshore, from East Avenue to Etobicoke Creek, with its last stop at the Long Branch GO station.

"This location is of tremendous benefit to those that live there. Our building is right there, so we'll be the first stop on the BRT—or the last stop—depending on which way you're going," Kassay said.

"So this BRT will run from East Avenue to Long Branch and service those who are commuting, with service to Lakeview Village, Rangeview Estates and us, as well."

Peel's proposed affordable housing development is located in close proximity to the massive 71-hectare site that is slated for the future development of the Lakeview Village master planned community. Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing issued an MZO (minister's zoning order) for the Lakeview Village site on May 12, 2023, nearly doubling the number of permitted units to 16,000 while including no limits for building heights and densities in major transit station areas (See: "Council Blindsided By Lakeview MZO", Novae Res Urbis GTHA, May 17, 2023).

"We're actually a transition point as well to the low-rise residential to the west of us, and then we start getting closer to Lakeview and Rangeview. So that's why a seven-storey building was supported by Mississauga planning staff because it does have that natural step up to what is eventually going to be Lakeview Village," Peel Region manager of housing development Brett Barnes told NRU.

Given the site's close proximity to the planned Lakeshore BRT, the Region was able to minimize the amount of underground parking needed for it, proposing just one level of underground parking, along with proposing the use of some excess surface space on the site for a surface parking lot.

The Region selected Martinway Developments to execute the design and construction services for the project through a request for proposal (RFP) process. Martinway has made the development of affordable housing the core of its modus operandi for more than three decades.

"We've been in affordable housing for 35 years, it's all that we do. We've had a long association with Peel and we have built several projects for them. With our familiarity with council and staff, we felt really comfortable with this partnership and being able to make this project work," Martinway vice president Chris Bullock told NRU. “We’ve been very fortunate because along the way, we have engaged various trades that have almost become partners with us in our journey to produce affordable housing. This is our mission statement, it's really what we're all about and we have various trades that feel the same way that we do. We're able to get good pricing, we get reliability, and we've been able to come up with something that’s very appealing to our clients, so it’s a win-win all around."

The site is located within Mississauga’s Ward 1, which has been a hotbed for development of late, with massive proposals such as Lakeview Village and the Rangeview Estates being submitted to the City. The ward is also home to the planned Brightwater community, a significant master-planned development that will be built on a remediated brownfield site that once accommodated an oil refinery operated by Texaco Canada. Brightwater is slated to accommodate 2,500 new residential units, including another Peel Region housing development that will bring 150 affordable rental units to that community (See: "Building for a Brightwater Future", Novae Res Urbis GTHA, June 21, 2023).

The East Avenue proposal has gone through a few iterations and tweaks with respect to the proposed design of the building, and Ward 1 councillor Stephen Dasko says that the work between the Region and Mississauga staff and city council has resulted in a proposal that works for all parties.

"The first iteration was a bit sterile, so this one has a much nicer look to it and we’re also looking to do some shared space [at grade]. The whole idea is to have a bit of shared space here that we could look to animate and have as the actual gateway to the new Lakeview," Dasko told NRU.

Some concessions had to be made by all parties in establishing a community space within the bottom floor of the proposed East Avenue affordable housing building, as Mississauga's planning staff had initially sought to have retail/commercial uses at grade, facing Lakeshore Road.

However, the building is proposed to be set back roughly 25 metres from the road, making it less conducive to connecting with the existing mixed-use buildings that line other parts of the road, where retail uses make up much of East Avenue's street wall at ground level.

"The City owns the lands to the north of our site, and that will become a bit of a boulevard that will support the upcoming BRT. And the City was very adamant about ensuring that we activate this area," said Kassay. “What we’ve done is it will be non-residential space [at grade] and we're going to try to program it so that it ensures that activity is happening there. Our current layout has community rooms. We’ve pushed all of our laundry facilities over to the corner."

Peel and Martinway are working to achieve a zero-carbon building with the East Avenue proposal, including high-performance windows, a photovoltaic roof and other energy-efficiency systems.

As with previous Peel affordable housing projects, the Region is putting an emphasis on accessibility, with 21 per cent of the building’s proposed dwelling units designed to be fully-accessible and barrier-free, and the entire site designed to be universally accessible, with ease of use for all people regardless of age, size and ability.

This project also marks Peel's first foray into resident transition planning, with the Region successfully moving the tenants of the 30 units that previously existed on the site into Peel Housing Corporation’s housing portfolio, a process that Barnes says, thankfully went quite smoothly.

With a substantial master-planned community being eyed nearby at the Lakeview Village site, the East Avenue development presents future residents with the opportunity to access all that Lakeview Village will have to offer in amenities and retail, while living in a home that they can afford.

"Really, what Lakeview Village and Rangeview Estates are bringing are a bonus for us. What we’re bringing is truly affordable community housing that will be affordable in perpetuity," said Barnes.

"Lakeview and Rangeview aren't contemplating putting up a building like what we're doing."

The applicant, Peel Housing Corporation has already had its zoning by-law amendment application approved by Mississauga council and the Region’s planning team is now working with City of Mississauga planners to lift a holding provision on the site that is in place pending resolving some technical issues pertaining to underground infrastructure.

Posted with permission of the publisher of NRU Publishing Inc. Original article first appeared in Novae Res Urbis GTHA, Vol. 26, No. 47, Wednesday, November 29, 2023.