Quality In Our Backyards
in Erin Mills South
Save our Shops and Services at 4099 Erin Mills Parkway
Save Our Shops & Sevices: Our Bank, Our Grocery Store, Our Ice Cream Shoppe, Our Hair Salon, Our Vet, Our Pharmacy, Our Pizza Shop, Our Bakery, Our Pasta Shop, Our Dentist, Our Medical Centre, .... Erin Mills was carefully planned 50 years ago to have walkable amenities: shops and services for each of the neighbourhoods (outlined in yellow in image from "Erin Mills New Town")
The Development Concept of Erin Mills included diverse housing
The Development Concept stated in Erin Mills New Town noted at p. 2.1:
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"The development concept for Erin Mills is directed to the creation of a large and diversified community offering its residents and workers a superior range of urban experiences."
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"The development objectives of Erin Mills are straightforward:
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to enhance the attractiveness of the community and its surroundings by exploiting their unique identifiable characteristics
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to establish a strong functional and physical relationship between places of residence and places of work ...
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to accomodate a broad economic and social cross-section of the general population by providing a complete range of dwelling types and a wide range of physical and social facilities"
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Page 2.6 of Erin Mills New Town proposed Residential Diversity:
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Diversity of Environment
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Diversity of Dwellings
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Diversity of Tenure
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Diversity of Housing Costs
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prestige residential sites
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high quality residential sites
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moderate cost housing
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social housing
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low income
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elderly persons
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students
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Page 2.6 of Erin Mills New Town proposed Elements of Residential Design:
"To achieve high functional and visual standards of design in the residential envivonment, special
considevation and study must be given to such matters as:
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new techniques of siting dwellings including grouping devices and cluster arrangements
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architectural co-ordination and design control of the residential environment with particular reference to the siting of buildings, the allocation of dwelling types, and the compatibility of materials and colours used
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exploratory new dwelling forms and further
development of existing forms as, for example,
the courtyard house, the atrium house or the
compact single house on a small private property ..."
Page 2.6 of Erin Mills New Town stated:
"The objective in the multiple housing areas will be to create building groups which will allow for a reasonable balance of household and family types and will help to retain an important sense of scale. The plan for Erin Mills does not envisage the development of an 'apartment city'. High-rise elevator buildings will not be established in concentrated form but will be integrated, both in the central area [Erin Mills Town Centre] and in the cmmunity sub-centres [e.g. South Common], with various fporms of horizontal multiple housing."
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"Because Erin Mills will be a large community with a broad cross-section of labour skills it will be necessary to provide housing for a wide-spectrum of economic demand. It will be necessary, for example, to provide housing for many of the service workers and other lower-income employees who will fulfill an essential function in the operation of the town's industries and commercial establishments."
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The 1969 plan for Erin Mills South set out the following Distribution of Housing:
49% Low density dwellings
21% Horizontal multiple dwellings
30% Apartments
The 1969 plan contemplated the following Distribution of Housing for Erin Mills Centre:
0% Low density dwellings
38% Horizontal multiple dwellings
62% Apartments
Image from p. 2.6 Erin Mills New Town:
Residential Community Structure:
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a constellation of neighbourhoods ... this larger unit , rather than the neighbourhoods, constitute the social and functional basis of the residential environment
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Community Subcentre ... major shopping ... social, cultural ... churches ... recreational facilities
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Erin Mills New Town contains three such such Residential Communities [including Erin Mills South, Erin Mills West, Ern Mills Ridge] in addition to the high density residential areas surrounding the Town Centre
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It is respectively submitted that the high-density housing was planned for Erin Mills Centre (e.g. Eglinton), with some Apartment style high-density in the South Common area of Erin Mills South. No Apartment style high-density housing was planned for the neighbourhoods of Pheasant Run, Arbour Green, or Olde Burnhamthorpe. Some medium-density housing was anticipated for the area immediately surrounding the neighbourhood shopping centres.
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Unfortunately, the housing proposed by QUEENSCORP for 4099 Erin Mills Parkway:
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is high-density rather than the medium-density that should be associated with the area surrounding a neighbourhood shopping centre
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eliminates the walkable neighbourhood shopping centre
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does not encourage diverse housing
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Diversity of Dwellings
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Diversity of Tenure
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Diversity of Housing Costs
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doesn't fit the surrounding neighbourhoods
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is inconsistent with the planned community of Erin Mills as it has evolved from the April 1969 plan and then through the Official Plan
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doesn't provide the family-sized housing that Mississauga needs.
It is respectfully submitted that the high-density housing proposed by QUEENSCORP for 4099 Erin Mills Parkway may have the indirect effect of encouraging speculation by others in housing as a commodity rather than encouraging the purchase by owner/residents and rental of new homes for families to come to "life in Erin Mills".