‘It’s the end of the city’: Battle continues over Toronto’s sixplexes

The war over sixplexes – a residential building divided up into six different homes – may be over in many Toronto wards, but the battles over individual properties continue, block by block.

Toronto residents against the structures made their grievances known at a recent Committee of Adjustments meeting as councillors approved another development this past week, a proposed sixplex and garden suite on McRoberts Avenue, which was approved in a 3-1 decision. Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment said proximity to transit is a key reason to greenlight the project and potentially even more in the future.

“This is less than a five-minute walk, probably a three-minute walk to the new Caledonia station on the Eglinton line,” said Larry Clay, Chair of the Toronto & East York Committee of Adjustment. “This is an area that should be and is going to see a lot more density.”

But it was not welcome news for those in the neighbourhood.

“I’ve lived in Toronto all my life. I lived in a decent neighbourhood. Families. All of a sudden council decides that anybody can build six units, garden suites, three storeys high, and that’s it, end of story. No! It’s the end of the city, Toronto sucks!” expressed Jim Kontos, who lives next door to the new development.

“This is the beginning of a quiet, decent neighbourhood in our city that’s gonna be destroyed simply because it’s on the new subway line. What is city council doing? This city is ruined.”

City councillors had the option to opt in to allowing sixplexes in their wards last year. Nine of them, all in downtown and East York wards ultimately gave the thumbs up, but not all of their constituents are on board.

“Communicate with the designer, communicate with the developer and share their valid concern. They cannot be against development,” said Mehdy Ajvand, an architect at Hyphen Studio. “There’s nothing we can do about that, but we can improve our design based on their concerns.”

Those in favour argue that sixplexes will help ease Toronto’s housing affordability crisis.

“Communicate with the designer, communicate with the developer and share their valid concern. They cannot be against development,” said Mehdy Ajvand, an architect at Hyphen Studio. “There’s nothing we can do about that, but we can improve our design based on their concerns.”

Those in favour argue that sixplexes will help ease Toronto’s housing affordability crisis, and there are more on the way. Ajvand tells CityNews his studio has taken on another seven of these projects in just the last month, but he’s turned plenty of them down, too, because they’re not a one-size-fits-all solution.

“All over Toronto, all over these nine wards, we do have several different characters, different situations, different requirements. By saying go and build sixplexes, fourplexes, this and that, it doesn’t work. The zoning bylaw should be more specific on that one,” explains Ajvand.

Drawings from the architect show the proposed sixplex at a fairly similar height to its neighbours, but in reality, the three-storey structure would be much taller than the bungalows next door.

“I think the misrepresentation of the elevation of the adjacent houses is kind of nasty, in my opinion. They show them being two-storey buildings when they’re actually very low one-storey buildings,” said Paul Gogan.

Those neighbours say the misrepresentation shown at city hall was blatant.

“They’re in for money and greed, and they’re gonna do anything to fool the people and the politicians. This is unacceptable. Toronto used to be the good; Toronto now is the bad,” said Kontos.

Suburban councillors have chosen to keep sixplexes out of their wards, for now. Some argue that the major developments could put the dream of homeownership out of reach for many families.

“When you upzone or give higher zoning for land owners, it incentivizes the investor class to come in and pick up a bungalow in Scarborough, which traditionally was picked up by a young family,” said Scarborough Southwest Coun. Parthi Kandavel. “So we’re increasing the land values of properties in the suburbs, that makes it more difficult for families to own a home. What ends up happening? They go to the 905. That’s not the Toronto that I want and many Torontonians want.”

Hyphen Studio tells CityNews construction could start in as little as two-and-a-half months, and it will take about a year and a half to complete the project.