A new wave of affordable housing could be coming to north Markham if an innovative back-to-back townhouse project makes it through the full approvals process.

Maria Gatzios, a planning consultant, made a presentation for the “affordable” project at a city council meeting earlier this month to councillors who were split in their opinions on the viability of the project.

Gatzios explained that the townhouses, which would be located south of Elgin Mills Rd. E., just north of the residential area north of Major Mackenzie Dr., just west of Warden Ave. and just east of the hydro corridor in the Future Urban Area, would be back-to-back in nature.

They would be part of a larger 4,000-plus unit development.

It also means that as back-to-back townhouses, they would have no backyard space, would be joined at the sides and would have limited green space at the front.

As for affordability, the suggestion was that the townhouses would likely sell in the $500,000 range.

For some councillors at least, that was considered affordable housing, when you consider many homes in Markham are selling for $1 million-plus and the average price of a home in 2019 in the city is $913,000.

Ward 2 Coun. Alan Ho, in whose ward the townhouses would be built if approved, was all in on the proposal.

He emphasized that at a cost of around $500,000 per unit, the townhouses would be affordable and would allow those who would otherwise not be able to afford a home in Markham to buy a house.

“When we are talking about the price point. A lot of times, councillors in the past have talked about developers building bungalows ... it’s not possible, but now we are providing an opportunity to meet this requirement,” Ho said.

Ward 7 Coun. Khaled Usman agreed saying, “we all want affordable housing. Let’s see how it works. I am going to support this. I was elected to bring on affordable housing. This is a way to bring affordable housing.”

Ward 6 Coun. Amanda Collucci said she thought it was another option to put in the market to see “how it is affordable.”

Reg. Coun. Jack Heath said: “I think we all have to look within ourselves as to how we’re going to provide more affordable housing. New ideas for Markham, new ideas for families and how people live. I think it’s important that we look at these kinds of projects and see how they work,” he said.

“We shouldn’t only impose our own views and tell people how they should live.”

Mayor Frank Scarpitti said he would support the plan saying, “if we can’t do this, how are we ever going to support affordable housing?”

There were voices of opposition on council to the notion of back-to-back townhouses, however.

Deputy Mayor Don Hamilton said he wouldn’t support the application.

“I don’t like it. There’s no green space, you don’t have a backyard, you probably have a postage-size front yard on a street that, because it’s so dense, probably has a lot of cars coming and going,” he said.

Gatzios said there would be parkland near the units.

“These units wouldn’t be any further than any other units from a park,” she said

Ward 4 Coun. Karen Rea was blunt in her assessment of the proposal.

“I think they’re horrible. Here it’s only one window. I don’t think there’s any green space, at the front, at the back or on top … I highly doubt that anything in the future here is going to sell for $500,000 unless it’s a condo unit. There’s not a chance a townhouse will be built for $500,000 and sold so it is not affordable housing anyway,” she said.

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Reg. Coun. Jim Jones said he didn’t favour the plan.

“I think a four-storey condo building would be a lot better than this,” he said.

In the end the proposal passed this stage of the application process and will continue to the next stage for consideration.

TK Tim Kelly is a general assignment reporter for YorkRegion.com and its sister papers. Reach him via email: tkelly@yrmg.com

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